


No Puedo Entenderlo

by Doc_Zed



Category: Villainous (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Ghost Reader, Paranormal, Poltergeist, Profanity, Reader speaks Spanish, Reader understands English, Violence, gender neutral reader, human reader, minor gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:59:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 49,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25904725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doc_Zed/pseuds/Doc_Zed
Summary: You aren’t having the best day. You woke with a  hangover, stubbed your toe, puked the remains of last night’s party, stained your favorite t shirt with hot coffee, stayed awake the entire plane ride to America due to a snoring child, popped your wrist and didn’t make it on time to the plane that would take you back home to Mexico. How could this get worse? You getting hit with a Suspended Animation Ray that separates your soul from your body...that’s what. Just one of those days...After y/n becomes a phantom, their soul is abducted and brought to the halls of the infamous Black Hat Manor where they now haunt. Y/n tries everything to become noticed by the captors; maybe they could help get you out nicely or you will just have to continue to bother them until they drive you out so you can find your body. (But not to the point of an exorcism!) Time is limited, and y/n needs to work fast or they may remain like this. Permanently.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	1. Día Mal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Haxorus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haxorus/gifts), [GoldTrimmedSpectacles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldTrimmedSpectacles/gifts).



_ BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-- _

“Uuugggghhh…” Your mutter was smothered by the duvet over your head. “Snooze…” Your hand darted out from the mass of blankets and pillows and aggressively descended on the snooze button, before retreating back into the warm haven protecting you from the morning’s sunshine poking out from the curtains. 

“Y/n!” Screamed a voice from the other room. “You have to be at the airport in forty-five minutes! Have you packed all of your things?” 

The bed sheets went flying. “FORTY-FIVE?!” You shrilly screeched. Your eyes darted to the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was now 9:15 am.  _ Oh crap...how did I oversleep?! _

With haste, you jump out of the bed, but immediately fall right back down from dizziness, stubbing your toe on the nearby dresser. “ _ SHIT!”  _ You cry out in a very dry and sore cracked voice as you cradle your poor and unfortunately attacked big toe. 

Your best friend, alarmed by the sudden cursing, flung open your guest bedroom door, and it hit the wall behind it with a loud slam. “What happened, y/n?!” He called.

“Head...tripped...toe...caffeine…water...” You uttered to him urgently unable to formulate logical sentences. 

He ran to your side and repeated the words in a comprehensible statement. “You are light headed from yesterday and tripped when you stood, stubbing your toe on the dresser. And you want some coffee and cold water?” Your head nodded. “Got it. I’ll start the coffee and get you some ice, but in the meantime, try to shake off the hangover and be absolutely sure everything that is yours is packed and ready to go.” In a rush, he patted your left shoulder twice and ran off to service you. 

Honestly, he was the best of all best friends you could have ever asked for. Anytime you needed anything, be it advice, comfort, or even just a pleasant conversation, he had you covered every single time. It had been hard when he first moved to Barcelona from Mexico and half way across the world from you, but both of you communicated everyday. He even made it to back to Mexico to visit you.  _ Twice! _ So this time, you had come to visit him in Barcelona for a week. You had taken plenty of photos that would make an excellent addition to your scrapbook of friends, and really had a glorious moment of relaxation with this great vacation. Apparently, you enjoyed yourself at the bar last night, or at least took plenty of shots. It was unlike you to be so irresponsible; you know your limit and everything that exceeds it, but some things just can’t be helped when one is drunk off of a good time.

_ Still though...this is KILLING me... _ Your id complained to your ego. The superego implored the id to be more mature, just as it always did. In the end, the ego was the decision maker. You stood up carefully using the bed frame as a clutch. “Why did I do this to myself…?” You moaned to your past self. 

Even if you weren’t starting off the best, there was no time to lose, literally! It would take your best friend at least thirty minutes to drive you which left you with only about fifteen minutes to pull yourself together. Lethargically, you paced to the opposite side of the room to reach down and collect your streun about dirty clothing which you lazily tossed off to the side when you had gotten back to your friends house early in the morning. 

The intruding sunlight stung your eyes and you squinted them while holding onto the clothes and your queasy stomach. As you stood back up straight the familiar feeling of yesterday’s digestion rose to your throat.  _ Oh, come the hell on! _

You dropped the clothes and ran to the bathroom, letting the bitter, burning sensation drain to the toilet. You heard your friend just outside of the door. “Yeah...you don’t look so well at all, y/n.” His face read that of suppressed worry as he held a thermos of coffee and glass of water close to him.

“No shit, Sherlock….” You hiccuped. He handed you the water and you quickly rinsed your mouth in the sink.

“I don’t know if you should travel back home looking like this. I mean you seem  _ really bad.  _ I don’t mind you staying another day...” He mentioned as you spat out the water to cleanse the disgusting taste. 

“As charming an offer that is, I have to decline it, regrettably.” You coughed a little bit, but your voice seemed much improved. 

He handed you your coffee and you sipped it, making a grimace. “I take it, that is too cool for you.” He read your expression. “I can heat it up for you.” He took it back and before leaving, being the concerned friend he is he posed the question once more: “Hey, I’m serious, do you need to stay here another day? We can always book you another flight.” 

You shook your head and raised your hand in objection. You couldn’t let him pay for  _ another _ thing for you this trip. He already bought you so many souvenirs! “No, no. It’s okay. Keep your money, alright? I’ll be fine. I just have to start moving around to feel a bit more like myself.” 

He seemed hesitant, but he nodded. “Okay...I’ll help you pack.” He went into your guest bedroom and folded the clothes you had dropped. 

_ He’s an angel, I swear. _ You smiled at his kindness. 

Finally, you were on the road with your friend, cup of piping caffeine in hand. As he drove, you two had a great conversation about your trip. “It was gorgeous! The pictures of the city you sent me in our messages have always been a beauty to behold, but physically being there in person was just...astounding! The art is bright, vivid, and flawless!” You had a very strong appreciation towards admirable art and music. It spoke to you on another plane of reality in some ways. 

He laughed hearing your praises of the city. “Yeah, I know. I’m lucky my house has a cool balcony view. It’s very relaxing to just sit outside there at sunset with a small votive glass of liquor.” You agreed with a slight nod, recalling the impressively striking and picturesque image of the Barcelona sunset. 

You began to raise the traveling mug of steamy coffee to your lips, but your sensory nerves warned you it was scorching, so you lowered it back to your lap, and began to fumble to recap the thermos. 

“Oh what the fu--” Your friend swiftly turned the wheel as a middle aged lady disregarding traffic signs zoomed past them. He blared down the horn cursing loudly. “BITCH, GET OFF THE DAMN ROAD!” The vehicle jerked to a halt and the coffee splashed on your chest. You yelp in shock of the alarmingly boiling liquid.

“Oh, gosh…” He muttered with his eyes still on the road, but with full awareness of what happened. “I’m so sorry, y/n. Hang on, there should be some napkins down here somewhere…” His hand searched the car floor and rummaged past built up plastic bags and accumulated garbage. 

“I’m okay. Put your hands back on the wheel please!” You blurred out. You didn’t want him to accidentally cause an unnecessary wreck. “I can look for one.”

“If I used them all up, just go ahead and take a few tissues or something. They should be on the back seat.” He informed you. “Some drivers on these roads...They can be a total mess! I know some people don’t bother with licenses because of the nice proximity of everything, but  _ really _ ! If you’re going to drive,  _ drive _ !” He became very easily pissed with irresponsibly, unsafe people. 

When we arrived at the airport, the stain on your favorite t shirt had obviously not come out and tinted the shirt an ugly brownish color when absorbed into the fabric.  _ Great...of course it’s on my chest too… _ You subconsciously grumble knowing it was going to be visible to everyone around you. The ghost of the pounding headache crept around in your mind, but the medicine you took before hopping to the car ride had kicked in and numbed it temporarily. Hopefully, it wouldn’t choose to torture you during the ten and a half hour flight to the United States Atlanta, Georgia Airport. 

Your friend helped you unload all of the luggage and made sure you were in the airport safely. He sighed once you flopped down comfortably in the waiting area chairs, claiming your seat. “Well...I guess this is farewell for now, huh?” He stretched out his arms and bent to give you a hug. 

You jumped to him and rocked side to side. “I’m definitely going to come back here one way or another. I promise.”

A grin plastered on his face. “I promise to visit you any chance I get...so basically after I get another twenty plus full paychecks.” His comment made you chuckle. “Be sure to call or text me when you get back to Mexico City, okay?”

“I will.” You agreed, releasing him. 

“Alright...take care of yourself, y/n.” His hands dropped from your shoulders and down to his sides. He faintly smiled, and turned around, leaving through the airport doors. You watched him grow smaller and smaller as he faded into the parking lot and drove off back to his house. 

You sighed.  _ Whelp...it’s just me now.  _

Once everyone boarded, it took  _ forever  _ to actually take off...just as it usually did. You had been sitting alone and watching the airline staff adjust cones, communicate with walkie talkies, and running back and forth doing something of importance. While they scurried around you thought of home.  _ I’m sure my parents will be waiting for me so we can go to dinner.  _ You sank in your seat trying to find a comfortable position.  _ I honestly hope we can have something especially exquisite to finish off this nice trip...Pujol, Quintonil, Azul...Oooh! El Carden- _

“HEY MISS!” A young eleven year old screamed in your left ear. 

You jumped in a bit in annoyance of the interrupting very chipper redheaded and freckled boy, but tried to keep a mature composure being the older one, even if he may or may not have assumed your gender. “Oh, uh. Hello…” It came out like a question but you couldn’t help that very much. He was addressing you in english. You can’t exactly speak english fluently, but you could understand it well enough. 

“My name is Alroy! I’m goin’ to the United States to visit my grandmother!” He energetically exclaimed with a prideful and toothy grin. It was a very adorable display, and you hoped you could say what you wanted to correctly.

You took the time to absorb full meaning before you spoke. “Ah...yes. I am go...ing...to there...as well.” You nodded.  _ Yeah, yeah...that was right.  _ You mentally checked and patted yourself on the back. 

“Cool! You can speak english!” The boy switched to speaking in the more familiar language to me. “I just wanted to see if you knew. I had to learn the language for a long time just so I could sound correct.” 

Relieved that he was no longer going to drill you with the english language, you sighed with a smile and nodded. “Impressive. I can’t actually speak it very well. I’m really only fluent when reading, writing, or listening to english.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Gotta start somewhere. Plus, that sounds like great progress!” He gave me a motivational thumbs up and childish giggle. 

_ Well, I could be stuck on this flight next to worse people. He’s not so bad… _

_ Ok...make it stop.  _

After rambling for almost two hours about some english traditions that could have made a historian want a nap, little Alroy fell asleep, exhausted from his speech, and snored like an old man. A very loud old man.  _ Very loud _ . You had nothing with you to block the disturbance aside from tissues. But those hadn’t worked.

You honestly didn’t want to wake him, but at the same time you were hoping he was snoring like this because of sinuses and not enlarged tonsils. You looked over for the mother, who was sitting across from the aisle. She was reading a book, and oblivious to the rest of her surroundings. “Uh, miss…?” You asked her urgently. No response. You try again a bit louder, but not loud enough to disrupt other passengers. That’s when you noticed a small significant detail that barely stuck out; a clear tube traveled into her ear and just behind the helix shown a grey devise curving with the skin. It dawned on you instantly  _ She’s deaf… _

Unfortunately you didn’t know any sign language, and everyone adjacent, who had been observing the situation, shifted uncomfortably, averting their eyes.  _ Figures… _

You let Alroy slumber on, wheezing noisily in his siesta.

_ Finally! Thank GOD! _ The plane landed and you shuffled off in an orderly, but urgent fashion. You had to stretch those poor limbs now! Upper trapezius stretch, quadriceps stretch, standing hamstring stretch, all of the arm stretches, and to finish it off the wrist stretch…

_ SNAP! _

“Ah!” You flinched at the sudden jolt of rushing pain. You pushed it too far back, popping your wrist out of place. “Dammit…” You muttered under your breathe.  _ From one unfortunate event to the next...just one of those days… _

You walked inside of the congested Atlanta airport, clutching your wrist to provide some security. You craned your neck in hopes to read the signs and find a shop that may provide some sort of brace.  _ Let’s see...candy shop, barber shop, food court, another food court...and another food court, and…!  _

A very tall man cut in front of you and continued to travel in the same direction. He towers at least a good five feet higher than you somehow and completely blocks the sign that offered a glint of aspiration. 

In an awkward scramble of your feet, you thought you could cross by him, but it was not so; people only continued to flood from out of nowhere, and take up all available moving space. The only way to possibly get by him and read the sign would be to speak up.

“Disculpe, señor.” You projected out. Strangers on either side glanced at you but there was no reaction, as though you were labeled unimportant.  _ Ugh! I’m in the United States now! Of course! English! _

“Ah…” Your mind blanked with an abrupt slap that numbed your mental processes. “Ah…” The man turned around, acknowledging your existence. “I…” He looked impatient, and your mind frantically bursted with foreign words that cycled in your mind, crawling to your conscience and screaming to be said. You needed to choose the correct word quickly!

“Exercise me, please.” 

He furrowed his brows.  _ AH! WHAT DID I SAY!?!? _

“What do I look like? A priest?” He bluntly said in a deep voice, before quickly pushing himself through the swarm of humans, avoiding you.

You laughed nervously.  _ At least it worked...right?  _

You searched the First Aid Store long and hard, but there were no braces that you could find. You knew you had to ask someone, but after the first attempt of talking to an english speaker here you weren’t to confident in your social capabilities.  _ This is why I don’t like being here, or anywhere in an english place for too long.  _ You yearned to be back in Mexico City. 

Your stinging wrist gave you no relief and pleaded you to ask someone where the braces were. Three deep breaths, ten steps, and much muscle implorement later, you arrived at the help desk and folded your hands neatly. 

A young lady in her twenties came to you with an open smile and kind face. “How can I help you today, ma’am?” 

“Donde...ah, I need...a bracket…” You nodded, thinking it sounded like pretty decent english. 

The lady continued to smile unusually wide, but her lip twitches slightly. The corners of her eyes turned to crevices in her foundation powdered skin. “I’m sorry, we don’t carry brackets here, miss. Perhaps try the dental shop?” 

You noticed your mistake, and rather than bothering to formulate a sentence you blurred out what you initially meant to say. “Brace!” 

“They have those too, but I think you should use a more qualified orthodontist clinic.” Her dopey grin was unwavering as you unmasked your face of utter “what?” Your palm met your forehead and applied pressure at the temples. 

You point to your wrist. “Brace…” You say again. 

The woman continued to nod. “Yes, that is a wrist.”

Slowly, you wondered if the woman was doing this on purpose, or if you really were just that confusing for other people. You, not desiring to continue this wasteful conversation any further, chose that now was the best time to retreat. “Yes...Have a good day...you.” With that, you wandered for another pointless ten minutes. 

There was no wrist brace  _ anywhere. _ You basically wasted that whole time looking for something that wasn’t stored. The thought made you a bit flustered, but you had places to go and needed to hurry. The plane was about to leave!  _ I can’t believe I squandered all of that time…! PEOPLE! WHY AREN’T YOU MOVING!?  _ Your mind raged. 

Everyone was moving with no motivation and dragging themselves along the hallways like a train of zombies that were too stupid to even get themselves out a building. Your mind focused on the positive though.  _ Just think...three mores hours of this crap, and I can make it home. I can have queso and chips with a cocktail...I can shop for another t shirt since this one is wrecked...I can see my family; mom, dad, my other friends, my gloriously comfy and fluffy bed that needs more attention after a week of neglect...I’m coming! I’m coming home--!  _

An arm blocked your way and you charged into it not knowing it was there. You released the grip on your aching wrist, and the nerves protested against you, sending letters of agony. “I’m sorry, but the flight has already been boarded.” A young man in a security uniform spoke dreaded words. 

Your heart sank to your legs before your ears even understood what he completely said. You stumbled over the lowered bar of faith as you stuttered, failing to correctly devise full intelligible english phrases. “Pero señor, usted no entiende! No puedo quedarme aquí! Por favor…¡Debo ir a casa!” You whimpered. 

Unmercifully, the guard shook his head whether it be from incomprehension or grim inability to allow your requested action. “I’m sorry, miss, but no. You must wait for another plane.” 

You tried to collect yourself as you sat in another area the guard issued you over to, letting your fingers dart insanely across the keypad of your cell phone to inform your parents you wouldn’t be making it home on time. You couldn’t have supper with them, you couldn’t enjoy that desirable cocktail, you couldn’t even sleep in your bed tonight.  _ Where the hell am I going to go...?  _ You asked, crushed by the defeat of the day.  _ I woke with a killer headache, stubbed my toe, threw up, spilt my coffee on my favorite shirt, stayed awake the whole plane ride here due to a snoring child, popped my wrist out of place, and missed my flight home…! Hell! I haven’t had anything to eat for lunch!  _ How can the day possibly get any worse for you?

After you sent the message to your parents, you called your best friend; he needed to know about all this. 

“Y/n, hey! You can’t be home already, huh?” He asked joyful to hear your voice so soon but confused as to why. 

You sigh loudly. “Unfortunately, I won’t get home at all until tomorrow.” 

“Oh no...that’s awful! What’s going on over there? Are you still in Barcelona?” 

“No, I made it to America, but I missed my flight and so now--” A loud boom radiated through the airport followed by distraught screams of men and women alike. The once zombified crowd was running in your direction, crying out like maniacs. 

“Y/n...y/n…! What’s going on! I heard an explosion…! Y/n!” 

You had dropped your phone. You could not believe what the fuck was going on: witnessing hundreds of people sprinting away from a ginormous inflated sized blue care bear with a daisy twice your size on it’s head. The beast had broken off the roof of the entire facility and towered over, making a thunderous yet unthreatening sound. 

There was another sound present though far more iniquitous than the giant furry creature; a piercing laughter that echoed through the open space and vacuumed the breathable oxygen available for your lungs. Frozen fearful, on your knees you beheld the sight, trembling more than imaginable; the charred skin, dapper formal dress, wide pale green teeth, talons structured at the tip of his fingers, the noteable top hat... _ Oh dear God! IS THAT BLACK HAT!?  _

The demon had on, either side of him, a paper bag scientist, with Nobel Peace Prize knowledge he only shared with his boss on orders, and a delusional, psychotic girl with dilated eyes and a hysterical expression. Above and before all of you present was the standing, living gang of maniacs who internationally terrorized the dreams and daily lives of the innocent and the convicted, menacingly looking down from the bear’s shoulders; the maniacs assumed to be long retired from their line of work and maybe even six feet under; the legendary maniacs who were all armed with unidentified devices.

“Any volunteers?” Black Hat called down over the unnerved congregation of unexpecting citizens, cocking back the considerably large unknown gun in his hands. 

This day just officially became a  _ very bad day _ . 


	2. Fantasma

The bitter laughter rang with the shattering glass and terrorized screams of the crowd. The security guards who were armed had even begun to run upon seeing some poor people who had been too slow. 

_ Time to run!  _

You may not be the fastest runner, but as your father told you once: “Just be sure to outrun the last person.” Your lungs numbed themselves from the body’s pumping adrenaline, letting your feet fly away. In these situations, you were pretty good at jumping obstacles and avoiding potential objects that could slow you down; be it weapons, people, tables... Any other time, and you’re an uncoordinated mess. Had you been less panicked, you would comment on your amazing track skills when forced into these undesirable situations. 

You were a total blur and almost at the main exit in minutes, struggling to race the stomping bear. Did you make it there…? No--your morals stabbed your adrenaline harshly until it couldn’t move as you hear another cry; one that stuck out from the swarm. A sound you dreaded. Your weakness. 

“MAMA!!” The sound drowned every other. It cleared away the coursing state of excitement. “MAMA PLEASE WAKE UP!!” 

Little Alroy from before kneeled on the ground and shook his deaf mother who had obviously been hit; her body limp and unresponsive. The boy’s red face was puffy and poured out water and snot, his eyes blurry and pupils invisible, his legs rocking back and forth as he continued to shake the lifeless looking woman. “MAMA!!!” The arduous shouting of agonizing loss continued. 

You traced a light that glowed above and realized it was a shot from the ray targeting the sobbing boy. You lurched forward without another thought. “ALROY!  _ MOVE!!! _ ” You screamed picking up the boy in a swoop, as well as the mother’s body. Your upper body strength either greatly improved or you got shot with a double dose of adrenaline. You bounded away from the fire of the ray Black Hat shot, and swore you heard a snarl of disgust. 

Your head hesitantly turned around as you sprinted and you saw you were now being pursued by masses of tentacles and guttural hisses of detestation.  _ Oh dammit! No, no, no!!! I’m so freaking DEAD! _ Your legs began to shake and the confidence in saving the two of them had slowly diminished like a flame with no oxygen. You couldn’t run like this anymore; even though the threat lingered right behind you was hovering in a hostile and cocky manner. If you were going down, these people didn’t need to go with you. 

“Alroy, get out of here! Quickly!” You placed him on his feet. “I’ve got your mom, and I’m right behind you... _ go!”  _ You urged the child forward. With your implorement, he fled away as swiftly as he could, much to your relief. You trailed behind, respiratory system about to fail you.

As you tumbled to the ground, so did the ceiling’s light fixtures above, blocking the exit. You rolled the mother aside, out of further harm, and hid her farther from yourself. With minimal energy and exasperated faith, you crawled in a desperate, vain attempt. 

“There you are, mortal.” A raspy voice sneered behind you having caught up. “Let’s see how far you run from this…” The weapon warmed up, and the air became dense. 

_ Not yet!  _ You thought as you flipped on your back, steering clear of the yellow burst of heat. Gasping for breath, you went back on your knees, moving with your forearms; not making feared eye contact with the predator. 

Gagging on your choked inhales you managed to breathe out an ignored command: “...vete…cabrón...” [...go away...bastard…]

You heard sadistic chuckles and the  _ clank _ of metal fall to the ground.“You think I care, nonetheless, understand your words, human?” He cocked back another different ray with a purple energy engulfing the chamber. With a razor edged stomp, he crushed one of your legs under his foot, snapping it loudly. Your agonizing screams fell on the ears of the sadistic animal and he grinned. “Any comprehensible, meaningless, and or bitter last words?” 

You stopped in your tracks, absorbed in discomforting desolation, tossing your back to the ground in another painful snap of your sore hip. “Sí...Te perseguiré hasta el momento en que me permita entrar en cualquier forma de vida después de la muerte, hijo de puta.” [Yes...I will haunt you until the moment I am allowed into any form of afterlife, you son of a bitch.] You coughed up an iron liquid much to your shock.  _ Have I really pushed myself to this? What fate have I just sealed for myself…!?  _

Black Hat shrugged his shoulders. “If only there were a translator.” And fired the ray into your chest. 

“A-ah, sir…? W-why did you use that ray…?” Flug stuttered to his boss as they rode the humongous bear home. The scientist referred to the ray used to shoot you. 

“This?” Black Hat pointed. “None of your concern.” He gritted his teeth and shoved the small weapon into Flug’s grasp. 

“It’s because he ran out of power in the other ray he was using, because the squirming human just kept worming away!” Demencia giggled insanely bouncing in place. 

“I said it was _ none of your concern! _ ” He barked leaning into the deranged girl’s face. 

Rather than flinching, she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled wider, bringing her face up to his. “ _ GET OFF OF ME!!!”  _ The demon morphed his vocal chords octaves lower in a growl. She released him almost tripping off, but the big 5.0.5. caught her in the palm of his fuzzy paws. 

Dr. Flug cleared his throat needing to readdress his not so firm argument. “Y-yes...your reasoning is perfectly fine, sir! Never once d-did I doubt you, but this was still a work in progress…” He cowered, already guessing Black Hat’s reaction. 

“What kind of ‘work in progress…?’” He curiously, but in annoyance, asked his genius with a paper bag. 

Flug gulped. “A, ah, Suspended Animation Ray, sir, just like you ordered a week ago. It should remove the soul from the body, and leave the body completely intact as an empty shell, for lack of better words. O-Of course, I hadn’t actually finished working on the device, so I don’t know if it even effectively worked as you desired it to. I was trying to discover a way to trap the soul and guarantee that it wouldn’t move on or be wiped from this existence. That way you could hold souls hostage.” 

“Oh, yes I do remember issuing you to do that...” Black Hat drummed his fingers in recollection as he dismissed the general concern Flug held about the topic. “That’s not so bad. At least they are dead.” He cooly waved his hand recalling your irritable presence. 

He slumped back informally for a moment. Nothing peeved Black Hat more than a pesky human who refused to go down without a fight, and denied just withering away in submission to his triumphant glory. Fear and respect from the petty lifeforms brought him joy. Encountering a stubborn person with a will to power made him ill. Sure sometimes it was amusing to watch them struggle, but only once they were in his grasp and he was positive he had full control over them; unlike how you had been for him.  _ The thought of that insolent cretin revolts my own regurgitated waste!  _ Black Hat recalled your words he didn’t apprehend.  _ At least that’s over...That was a nice little killing frenzy. It really relieved some stress. I need to do this more often.  _ He hummed in agreement with his thoughts and sat silently, listening to the hysterical fright of the town they currently stepped upon. 

After this, it was back to Hatsville to record a new instructional and marketing video.

Sirens blared. Grey clouds covered the sky and allowed little passage for light. The crimson splatters of remains and haunting chill of those gone lingered heavily in the atmosphere. Weeping families waited outdoors awaiting grim tales of how the links of their lost family members had been severed and broken too early.

There, among the ash and rubble, laid the body of an odd hero who had a very bad day, but had never lived to tell the tale. There was movement. Personnel in the area flocked to the ripple of the water’s surface. 

“Who’s there?” They called. “Do you need assistance?” A middle aged woman forced herself into visibility.

Cries of a numb tongue that never formed perfect language filled the area. It was the mother you had saved. She was alive. 

Quickly they ran to her side and communicated in symbols, aiding her back to her unbalanced feet. ‘ _ Where is my child? What happened? Is Alroy okay? Please tell me!’ _ She flailed her hands with meaning. 

“Your child may be outside, miss.” The woman gave her enough vague assurance to calm her hastily reacting nerves with finger motions and soothing pats. 

“Officer!” A young man addressed the woman holding up Alroy’s mother. “Another body has been founded here.” He pointed to the left behind him where your cold body was stretched out frozen in a paralyzed state of terror. Your eyes glazed over and showed signs of pallor mortis. 

“You know what to do, Johnson! Come on; don’t stall!” She snapped at the cadet.

“But ma’am...the sergeant told me to inform you that the body has no bullet or laser wounds, no excessive bleeding, and besides  _ appearing _ to be dead, they are showing all other signs of life; the body’s heart is beating, the respiratory system is unregulated, but functional, as well as other necessary bodily functions.” 

“What are you getting at, Johnson? Is it a coma?” She rushed him along as she continued to move and balance Alroy’s mother. 

“Not a coma...What I’m saying, Officer Hughes, is that...it looks as though some of these people declared dead, may not be dead at all. Black Hat may have attacked with a variety of terrorist weapons, one which may have been some kind of Suspended Animation Ray...” He swallowed the remaining phrases in his voice box to his esophagus in hopes they would digest and he would have no need to say more.

Officer Hughes gaped slightly at the accusation but maintained her stone bearings. She gathered her thoughts in a couple of moments, having no time for through contemplation of the variety of decisions. “Hand that person over to the paramedics, and demand them be taken into White Hat’s Hospitalization and Laboratory at once. They must be examined and contained.” 

“Yes ma’am!” Johnson dropped his salute and sprinted in the other direction, shouting his received commands to the nearby rescue squad and the sergeant who sent him. 

The orders faded to faint whispers with the falling mist in the area as Officer Hughes successfully delivered Alroy his mother he feared had not made it. At last, one glint of hope crossed the mourning crowd like the single dove landing in a tree of vultures. 

“Ready, 5.0.5.?” Dr. Flug asked the inflated softy. 

The bear whined, a bit nervous, but nodded. Dr. Flug aimed and fired the Size-Altering Ray Gun, and watched the mutant squirm back to his normal size. Once 5.0.5. was at his preferred height, he proceeded to hug the ground with jubilant sounds. 

Black Hat rolled his eyes, personally finding the atrocity much more useful as a giant terrorizing bear that intimidated people at least from size. Though, admittedly it would be very hard to find him a decent living quarters if he was always fifty stories high. 

“Idiots…” Black Hat muttered per usual. “Get inside.” They obeyed the snappy orders of their boss at once.

“B-Black Hat, sir...Not to trouble you, but where should I place this weapon?” The scientist timidly asked his grimacing master. 

“Where do you think, fool?  _ The lab _ !” He spat. 

“Y-yes, I-I-I n-normally would, b-but, if the ray works as ordered, whoever you shot this at...uh, their soul should be in the c-container.” 

Black Hat’s signature annoyance didn’t flee his expression for a moment. “I know that, twit. I don’t care what happens to that one’s soul. Leave it in there until I use it next, I don’t give a--” The glass container at the end of the ray began to shake. Everyone went silent with peaked interest. “What’s happening?!” Black Hat stepped away.

Flug’s sweat fogged his goggles. “I-I don’t know…!  _ It’s not supposed to do that!”  _ He held it cautiously further from himself. “W-Wha...Who d-did you kill?!” He stuttered in a feminine pitch. 

Black Hat, flustered by the unknown activity thought back so Flug could figure this out. “Lots of idiots! I can’t remember! Some Spanish speaking, strong willed, arrogant, stubborn-ass mortal!” He regurgitated the memory along with adjectives clipped to the side describing your largely opinionated profile in his mind. 

“What did you do to them?!”

“ _ Well, I killed them! There’s that! _ ” Black Hat’s impatience and slight worry surfaced in the sarcastic remark.

“N-no…! What did you  _ say? _ ” Flug reiterated. “Did they say something to you?”

“ _ I don’t know what the bloody hell they said! THEY SPOKE IN SPANISH!”  _

Too late. The glass shattered, and Flug released his loosened grip on the ray, letting it drop to the ground. In the midst of shards and glistening fragments, a translucent figure became visible for a mere second before it faded completely. The witnesses of the phenomenon were washed in immobilization and overcome with stun.

“Oh no…” Flug gasped, stumbling over his own feet. “S-sir...you’ve created a poltergeist…” 

You couldn’t see much. The world had an very abstract aura that would make you feel dizzy if you didn’t have the absence of a mind. At least...it felt like that. 

_ But I’m still thinking...I can still see this surreal world that faintly looks like glass... _ The void in your chest sank to your guts.  _ Oh shit, am I really actually dead? This afterlife sucks!  _ You noted very unimpressed.  _ I at least expected the other side to not be complete crap like this. What a let down… _

The sound of voices ceased your thoughts; they were small and distorted, but you knew exactly who the voices belonged to after you noted the particularly horrifying demonic growl.  _ Black Hat?!  _ You guessed it.  _ Oh no…!! Is he the real Devil, and I am going to hell so he can torture me forever in an unending universe of sheer torment! BOLLOCKS!!! MY FINAL WORDS CURSED HIM TOO!!!  _

You looked at your hands; fluorescent and radiating a cool sensation.  _ I am a ghost! I’m a freaking ghost!  _ “Great! Just great! I’m going to suffer like this permanently!” 

Panic surged within your transparent figure, rising hysteria consumed your caged spirit.  _ No...I don’t want this…!  _

Insanity wanted you to agree to take what was left of you; beckoning you to the point where you wondered if you should give it. 

_ Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!  _

Your nightmare quaked, violently vibrating the sides of your hollow mind. 

_ LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!  _

The walls of your limited existence began to form crystal incisions with the droning convulsing sways. 

_ LET ME OUT!!! _

Suddenly, it rained diamond fractions of the container which sealed you. 

Your eyelids had been squeezed shut and your knees had bent in reconciliation for the crimes you may had committed in whatever heaven there was above as your conscience had raged. Your soul barely hung in the place which you had floated before the eruption. All noise had been extinguished, but your eyes saw a furnished environment with an almost distinguished pleasant aroma; regal portraits you couldn’t make out images of and a dark earth tone room vibrating a bewildering welcoming setting. 

There were four blurry figures, whose actions seemed forcefully downtempo; so much so, you couldn’t identify the expressions all at once. Perhaps... _ aghast? _ Like they had seen a ghost...

Slowly, your phantom descended and became more and more invisible to the naked eye. A sly smirk couldn’t help but cross your face; you knew you just freed yourself somehow, and you were  _ positive _ Black Hat would be furious with your victory, but  _ what can he do to you now? _

_ Point two for y/n!  _ You chanted to yourself raising an imaginary glass of champagne as you scurried away with your new paranormal abilities. 


	3. Tostada Embrujada

The thrill of your glorious moment drove you forward. You weren’t sure how, but you naturally began flying as though you were sprinting almost effortlessly. Overcome with astonishment by your satisfying escape, you beamed as though you were a child and darted in a straight path to the exit. 

_ Too easy!  _ You chanted.  _ Freedom is mi--!  _

_ BAM!  _ You hit the door at top speed and dropped to the ground, falling flat on your happy ghost ass. 

_ B-but…! I just flew through that wall a second ago! _ Puzzled by the situation you tried again, standing and stretching out your hand to (hopefully not) feel the door. Curiouser still, your hand interacted with the particles and you touched that surface as though you were still human. 

You straggle back with a little shock, but at least there was the door knob. But you couldn’t grab the doorknob; your hand went clean through. You sputtered.  _ What…?! No! I need to leave! I need to go home!  _

In desperation, you ram yourself against the door, the walls, the roof; not once passing through. You scream in aggravation, pouting like a toddler and reverting to tantrums. You kicked and banged on the divide keeping you from true liberty, unknown to you, causing a racket of rampaging noise and chaos, telepathically throwing objects around you. 

You sank to the floor realizing the truth. Yes, you had gotten out of their grips, but you were trapped; unexpectedly a phantom hostage with no means of escaping the manor.

Soon footsteps stormed down the hall, alerted by the boisterous commotion you made. Unwilling to be more captured than what you already were, in a mindless, depressed, and defeated manner, you eased down, descending between the floorboards into the basement. 

Dr. Flug appeared from around the corner and gasped at the mess. Demencia followed, crawling on the ceiling, and dropping to the rug floor. The room was in almost total shambles, with dents in solid surfaces, portraits left crooked on the walls, a flickering light, and miscellaneous books scattered from the shelves to the far ends of the hallway. 

“Wow...that is one unhappy ghosty.” Demencia whistled.

Black Hat arrived and twisted his facial muscles. “What the  _ HELL?! _ ” 

5.0.5. came, hyperventilating from the hurried shuffle, and collapsed next to Flug. “Yup...this is most definitely the work of a poltergeist.” Flug stated petting his poor exasperated friend.

Black Hat abruptly snatched the unexpecting doctor up by the collar of his coat. “Exactly  _ WHAT _ does that  _ MEAN! _ ?”

“A-AH!” The scientist struggled to inform the boss between the strangulation of the grip and attempt to gather his thoughts. “S-sir! Basically a p-poltergeist is a malevolent spirit who has the ability to cause physical d-disturbances. Th-they are m-manifested from their mind’s desire of vengeance and are n-normally very aggressive! You m-must have killed someone with a strong will to power!” Black Hat stopped shaking him so Flug could finish without so many sharp inhales. Flug swallowed deeply. “Whoever this is will not stop until they feel proper retribution is distributed on the one who pushed them into their premature fate. That someone being you.” 

Black Hat chucked Flug aside. “ _ I know that! _ ” he snapped in annoyance. “How do I get rid of it? They are going to be nothing but a thorn in my side!” 

Demencia huffed. “He just said that they won’t leave until--”

Black Hat gripped Demencia’s wrist and yanked her face closer to his so she could vividly see his snarling growl and teeth of fury mixed with vitriol. “I asked Flug.  _ You _ will  _ not speak  _ unless explicitly directed to.” As soon as his constricting clutch loosened, Demencia crawled up the walls and hissed a small bit from the sting. 

Flug stood up, 5.0.5. helping him refind his center of balance. “R-regretfully sir, Demencia is correct. What I said stands true. You can’t get rid of a poltergeist until they are contempt with some punishment and torment they bring you. Exercising it wouldn’t be a good idea either, considering your demonic energy. I mean, how wise would it be to bring a man of God into a demon’s household to banish another evil?” 

Black Hat made a low guttural hiss with the flick of his tongue. “I’m aware of that, you fool! As if  _ I _ would be that stupid to stoop to _ your _ mental way of thinking!” He referred to everyone around him but himself. 

_ Perfect...this is just what we needed here: a Spanish poltergeist that no one here is going to understand!  _ Black Hat whined in his head.  _ How pathetic. Maybe it’ll give up once they realize I’m too mighty for them to take on.  _

“Whatever…” Black Hat sighed rubbing his temples. “Just...get to work in the lab. Do something productive...5.0.5. clean this mess  _ at once _ !” He waved the imbeciles away as he huffed and puffed like a wolf to his office. 

5.0.5. grunted. This was indeed quite a prodigious wreckage to reorganize. 

Ten minutes had past as you contemplated your situation: 1. You are dead. 2. You are a phantom of some kind. 3. You can fly and do a bunch of ghost shit, but for some reason  _ cannot _ leave the nefarious Black Hat manor…

_ Oooooh boy! What a day… _

_ I can’t give up all faith though! _ You levitated in the air and flew in a circle.  _ Sure, I’m dead, but hey…! Now I can do a bunch of stuff that my younger self always wondered, right? This is kinda a dream of mine!  _ Your mind, in an attempt to not mourn in despair at this case, acted quickly resilient. It’s not everyday you get a chance to be a ghost, you may as well make the best of what you have. 

_ I should do something grand! But what…?  _ There’s so much you could do. You had figured just flying, becoming invisible to certain people’s eyes, and passing through walls to spy on others would be good enough, but that all seemed to come naturally oddly enough. 

You tried to lean against the wall to think, but accidently went through it like the particles were that of gas.  _ Whoa...I guess I need to be more careful about that.  _

You snapped your fingers as the lightbulb went off.  _ First things first: I need to learn what all I can and can’t do.  _

There was a wooden board lying on the concrete basement floor. It was dusty and only the insects around the area could guestimate how long it had been since the area was cleaned.  _ I suppose they don’t like going to the basement that much. But why...it’s not haunted. Well, it wasn’t haunted before.  _

You glided past the filthy air and bent over to grab the board. No dice.  _ Dang it.  _ You tried again.  _ Come on…!  _ You did it about seven times with the same effect every time. Had you still been human, or anyone other than a struggling phantom, you would look like a total numbskull. 

You huffed.  _ Ugh! “PICK UP THE BOARD!!!”  _

If you weren’t dead you would have been scared witless into the next world. The board shot up from the ground and levitated next to you. You made a startled yelp and flailed back, and the board followed right to your ghostly palm. 

Instantly noticing what was happening, you squealed, merrily kicking your feet in the air. You did it! You held the board. “Yes!” You cheered joyously with laughter. 

Throwing it down, you did it again.  _ Alright...Here board! _ You extended your right arm stiffly as you commanded the inanimate object. Just as ordered, the board bulleted from the ground into your hands. As if it were the miraculous first time again, you giggled delighted. You did a victory flip causing the board to slam back to the ground with a thundered thump.  _ Oops.  _ You smiled.  _ But hey...I can just pick it back up!  _

_ Okay, step one: pick up things is a success. Now what about leaning on things…? _

Hesitantly you slide by the balance beams trailing from the ceiling to the floor.  _ Maybe it works the same way?  _ You braced yourself in case you would fall through. Despite being a paranormal entity, you could still feel when you physically hit anything. Like when you bounced off the barrier holding you here and slammed to the ground. Your poor rear end still felt a little flattened. 

You reflected on how you picked up the board. You have given it a command for the tactic to work properly.  _ What do I say to it…?  _ “Uh...lean against this…?” 

Like a trust fall, you let gravity take you; and like the joker friend in the group, it let you fall thinking your trust was amusing when crushed. Your shoulder hit the ground and you bit your lip to not howl.  _ Ouch...guess not. For now, let’s not lean on things unless I know it’s solid to me.  _ Not bothering your limbs, you soared back up in the air, patting yourself off and re-catching your dignity that didn’t leave you from being outsmarted by a support beam. 

_ Step two. Fail. But I can still lift and throw things!  _

A devilish smile slathered across your cheeks as you began to think of all your capabilities: flying, invisibility, going through solids, and lifting objects without breaking a sweat. Schemes boiled in the conscious of your mind, being ready to serve you piping hot results. 

_ Oh, I’m gonna have some fun with these abilities... _

Without a second thought or faltering twitch of your smooth flow, you rose above to the first floor of Black Hat manor. 

It was time for supper, and the residents of the manor gathered in the kitchen, minus Black Hat who was supposedly working with a client on a video meeting. 

Demencia grunted. “Hurry up and cook, bear! I’m starving!” She rolled around on the table knocking over the salt and pepper grinders. 

“Demencia, stop that!” Flug commanded, pushing her away from him. He seated himself and was occupied with the blueprints of another doomsday device. “You’re acting ridiculous!” 

“Good!” Demencia pouted sitting up. “If my stomach isn’t happy, I’m not happy! If I’m not happy...NO ONE WILL BE!” A rumble echoed from her lower body and she dramatically bent over, leaning off the table and hitting the ground. Her theatrics would make Sophocles applaud. 

5.0.5., unable to tell if Demencia was joking or not, worriedly glanced over, taking his eye off of the stove. He mumbled concerned whimpers.   
“Don’t worry, pal. She’s faking it.” Flug rolled his eyes. 5.0.5., trusting his close friend and creator, turned back to preparing the simple feast. 

Of course, no one noticed you standing in the corner of the kitchen, scheming by the fridge.  _ Let’s see...maybe I should help them with a little supper. You know, with my own special little touch.  _ You saw the bear reach into the spice cabinet to season the meal in the stove pan.  _ Maybe nothing too mean. Afterall, I’m just going to give Black Hat a living hell.  _ You looked at the cartoonish display of the minions waiting to be fed.  _ Then again...they are also responsible for the demise of lord knows how many innocent people...Hm, but what should I even do?!  _

Your eyes averted to the side as you craned your neck around to observe your surroundings. There wasn’t really much. You would have guessed Black Hat, being a snobby, wealthy, and quite foul villain, would have more random ostentatious bits and bobs lying around. From what you noticed, it was a very plain setting. Not drab or anything; just simple and plain in an almost nice way: light purple walls, oak table, wide counter space and a pleasant island, plus all the necessities; sink, oven, stove, refrigerator... 

Then there was food in the pantry, neatly organized and sorted with shelves of canned goods, produce, and light, low calorie snacks.  _ Guess they gotta keep up their health somehow.  _

One item stuck out to you the most; fluffy white bread. It looked delicious, making you wonder if you could eat food as a ghost. In the movies, you didn’t really see many phantoms complaining about hunger...

The idea sprang in your head.  _ This is just my first time haunting, so I guess I don’t have to do anything strictly coordinated. Just...let myself go with it. _

You reached out, eyes set on the scrumptious package of bread.  _ Unravel.  _ You thought, and the bag unwrapped itself, raining wheat. 5.0.5., startled, jumped back with the pan still in his paws and let out a frightened squeak. Everyone’s attention was grabbed. 

You smirked at the ambience you had formed, just like in an original paranormal scene. This time, you wanted your voice to be heard. “Suba.” [Rise.] You rang out causing them to scramble to the opposite corner. The bread, possessed by your voice, levitated and soared in the air. It was the most terrifying show that this wheat product could ever perform when viewed in the eyes of trembling witnesses. 

“Th-the poltergeist!” The doctor screamed in panic and slight confusion. 

“Ghosty!” Demencia said spooked, pouncing on the wall. She began to slither up in an attempt to escape.

But the party wasn’t over yet. 

“Bloquee.” [Block.] The kitchen furniture, the table you meant, and additional chairs, floated to the exit and barricaded them in. Demencia fell down, and 5.0.5. lurched forward to grab her. They retreated back to Flug’s side not saying anything to one another, realizing you could hear them. 

After a few silent moments of beholding the demented bread Flug coughed and spoke out wanting to communicate. “I-I’m s-sorry you d-d-died, but p-please! Let us go!”

“Mierda!” [Bullshit!] You boom through the storm of bread. “ Usted deja tantas personas inocentes morir hoy y si yo no estuviera aquí ahora atormentándolo, usted no batía otro párpado!” [You let so many innocent people die today and if I were not here now tormenting you, you would not beat another eyelid!] You hissed in disapproval. Not as though he would understand. 

One by one, you began to toss the bread around; in the stove, microwave, oven, and toaster to heat it up. The scent of warm toast lingered in the kitchen. It may not be the most petrifying action to take, but seeing as this was _flying toast_ at least it was somewhat intimidating. Plus, you wanted to see if ghost could be really hungry.   
The scientist sank deeper behind 5.0.5. “I’m sorry! It’s our job! We don’t have much of a choice!” He screeched like a mouse. 

Your eyes widen.  _ Did he...understand me? _

Without ceasing the symphony of paranormal toast making you had to question. “¿Sabes español?” 

“Y-yes...but I can’t speak it well and only know the basics!” He moved his arms in front of his paper bag as if you would abuse him. 5.0.5. and Demencia stared at him cluelessly not comprehending your conversation through divergent languages.

All movement stopped for a moment.  _ If the doctor can slightly understand me, that means I can communicate easier…!  _ You felt instantly happier upon hearing that joyful news. A smile crawled to your face from the well timed emotions and your phantom figure became more buoyant. You let down the cover of your invisibility, and the three of them gasped in surprise seeing you fully for the first time. There was no color in your transparent body, just a floating aura and cheshire grin. 

_ Finally! Someone here will be able to understand me!  _ It had been too long since you had met someone who could do that, which is why you let your guard down in that one moment. It had been too long since you had met someone who could make you smile from saying something so simple, which is why you let your guard down in that one moment. You almost felt you could trust them...in that  _ one moment. _

In your hypnotized state of being, you nearly missed Black Hat crashing through the furniture obstacle and forcing himself into the kitchen.

“There!” Flug pointed at you, exposing you to the demon’s rage. 

Two inky tentacles sprung out of his sides and shot out to you. 

Snapping out of the content moment, you moved higher and further from Black Hat in a flash. The pissed snarl of a wild, untamed beast leashed on his face, in annoyance that you always had a way to slip away from him. 

He wasn’t done attacking yet though. Black Hat bared his savage fangs, ripped talons from his coarse flesh, and began to faintly morph into a larger, more intimidating version of himself.

Your mind raced and your brain turned to mush from bouncing so much on the sides of your head. You were going up against the legendary nightmare of children and adults; the terrorizing monster your parents begged you never to come face to face with; the notorious criminal who retired because there was no hero that could defeat him. 

You are just the residue of one of his victims; a pesky speck of dirt that could be wiped away with a little cleaning spray. 

You had to  _ get away. _

Unknowing what to do, you deplored your toast soldiers.  _ “ATAQUE!”  _ [ _ ATTACK! _ ] Panic rang in your dead voice. 

The entire loaf of bread you had toasted lit themselves on fire and charged at Black Hat like a mini meteor shower. 

The oddity of the sight made him pause, not in uncertainty of his actions, but rather in sheer confusion that led him to a small breakdown of system seeing this total disarray, jumble of charred toast. “ _ What?! _ ” Black Hat questioned aloud with scratchy vocals.

His quick pause gave your toasted army enough time to latch themselves onto him and push him back. He clawed the air trying to rid the burning slices. You couldn’t help but chuckle at the resistance. Never would you have imagined on the wildest day or in the most drunken of thoughts the all-powerful Black Hat struggling with toast. 

It was short lived, of course. Black Hat snapped his fingers and your loyal breakfast singed and fell to the kitchen tile as piles of ash; the only evidence you had been present.

You got the fuck outta there, vanishing in your hasty retreat back to the basement. 

Black Hat’s maddened face radiated immense, volatile heat of vexation and seeped radioactive energy. He was not happy. 

_ Not happy _ . 

He was about to tear the limbs off the first human he saw and bathe in the crimson gore. He was going to find a hero just to stab out their eyes and let them rot away like Oedipus Rex. Then, he would kick a puppy.

The three of his companions, aware of the boiling rage, backed away into the corner and prayed they could disappear, just as you had done five seconds earlier. 

Heaving breathes for a few more seconds he growled through his fangs. “If anyone ever let’s word of this moment slip out of their mouth, I will personally rip out their tongue and stitch their lips together. Do you understand?” He stressed the consonants of his words. They all nodded in rapid unison. 

One irked finger shot up, and they all flinched and the sudden movement of their vile employer. His voice transfigured deeper and more heinous. “First chance you get...First. Fucking. Chance...I want this abomination eliminated.” That statement was mainly directed at his wise scientist, but everyone moved their heads up and down in agreement from fear. 

“Excellent.” He flatly said, reverting to his normal, still unpleasant, appearance. The rim of his top hat shaded his scowl, making his appearance even more ominous. He slowly paced to his office without another sound. 

Once the sweltering boss was out of listening range, Demencia shared her accurately precise and relevant fortune cookie knowledge. “Shit, dude. That was terrifying.” 


	4. Esperanza

Black Hat was furious. All night. You heard him have a mini tantrum as things were strewn about and he raged alone in his office. For everyone’s health, you decided not to rile him up anymore for that evening, and gave them some solace as they slept. 

You weren’t tired in the night though. You stayed awake with some strange, mysterious night vision and endless energy. It was pretty boring, but at least you got to explore the mansion and think of devious plots: disorganizing neatly placed stacks, hiding keys and important files, and especially taking down some of the unsettling paintings. Almost all the portraits had Black Hat in them and the eyes of the pictures seemed much too real. As you passed by one that looked like an apocalyptic world, you shuddered to yourself and glared at the creature. 

Black Hat was a sick demon who  _ enjoyed _ the evils in life. Someone had to punish him. 

_ Guess that’s why I’m here. I did say I’d haunt him, right?  _

You continued to pace down the hall in a ghostly manner. The light snores of the slumbering residents became more clear; you made it to the living quarters. Curiously, you peeked your head through the first door. A giant blueberry, quietly resting was all you could see. He was curled in a ball on a huge dog bed, harmlessly snoozing. It was an adorable display. 

Behind the second door was a messy, punk room filled with a jumble of rock vinyls, cut out pictures of Black Hat, and wild plants. There was a light that covered the whole ceiling as she slept. The girl was stretched out on the pink sheets of her bed, wheezing animalistic sounds.  _ Yup. This is Demencia.  _

The next door was plain, and simple. As you observed the room, it was very tidy but random bits and bobs were tossed in boxes labeled to the side. It looked as though he hadn’t unpacked from moving day. In the full size bed with childlike airplane sheets was the doctor himself. You recalled him earlier when you had made your first showing to them: The Dance of the Phantom Toast. He was the only one who had remotely understood what you had to say. He seemed like the one who would want to talk to you the most... _ but probably only to get rid of me.  _

You knew exactly what was in the last door. You weren’t quite sure you  _ wanted  _ to look though. Black Hat’s room was most likely a totally corrupt space just like himself. Still though, you were bored. 

Black Hat’s room was, without a doubt, the most lavish of all. It was completely furnished with a leather couch seat, two charcoal recliners, and lush, lavish, velvet cushions, blankets, and sheets. You were  _ positive  _ the Queen had slept in worse rooms. There was no denying; Black Hat may be a prick...but look at that style…!  _ DAAAYUM!  _

The demon looked almost peaceful, minus the disturbing grimace he wore in his sleep. The corners of his mouth twitched. He almost seemed unsettled by something. Almost like he was being intimidated. 

Thinking about the way you acted with the ghost toast invasion, made you ponder if maybe--just maybe--Black Hat was the slightest bit frightened by your presence. After all, you are new here; a human that was unwillingly murdered and they unexpectedly brought your dreading and sorrowful soul here to which now you are a haunting entity that curses this manor with a number of well thought out botherations.  _ Could it be that even the most wicked of beings have nightmares too? Could I possibly be one of his nightmares now?  _

You pushed the silly thought aside.  _ Pft! Black Hat...scared of something? Scared of me?! Mierda.  _

You descended beyond the floorboards back to your new hideout: the disgusting basement. You needed to distract yourself for another four to six hours until your evil crew of unfortunate ones being haunted by you woke. 

A fist hit the palm of your hand and determination spread in your mind.  _ If I’m gonna be here to haunt these people for a while, I need a halfway decent room for myself! I may be dead, but my proper living etiquette isn’t! _

Your prideful mind lifted a hand as you said out: “Orginiza!” [Organize!] 

Nothing moved. 

_ Aw...come on! I have to actually organize this myself?  _ The ghost life made you a bit lazy at times. 

As the sun began peeking out of the horizon, you put the finishing touches to the basement. It looked much better, and suited you just fine. You dusted everything off so you could breathe, though you really didn’t need to, and some color began to splash back into the dull furniture that was available. There was a cream couch, a nice lamp with a wooden support and faded orange shade, two black coffee tables engraved with a flower pattern, and an old bookshelf with a surplus of ancient looking books and photo albums.  _ It may not be a perfect room, but at least I got something.  _ You told yourself. 

_ Now that it’s almost time for wake...Let’s be a nuisance!  _ You chipperly bounced into the area above you; the hallway.  _ What to do, what to do…?  _

You glided over to the portrait on the wall and observed it. Your mind came to a consensus that first and foremost, these paintings must come down. One by one you used your phantom telekinesis to lower the art and turn them backwards, angling them against the floor and the wall. 

Suddenly though, you were jerked with another plan. The devil on your shoulder planted a seed of a devilish plan in your head, and the angel sowed it rather than digging it out.  _ Some of the pictures are framed… _ You grinned widely.  _ Where can I find a sharpie…?  _

You floated down the hall with increasing acceleration on a quest to discover the magic sharpie you would use to vandalize the hideous pictures with comical mustaches and other childish images. Sure, it’s very elementary of you, but it’s kinda fun and a harmless, cute way to fluster the big cheese of the manor. Sticking your nose into every door way you passed, you puzzled more and more:  _ Do they even have a sharpie…? Of course they do! Everyone has to have at least one just lying around, right? Even when you don’t think you have one, one always shows up!  _

Your head popped into a room you hadn’t seen before. It was another organized mess with scattered robotic parts and engineering trinkets packed in a plethora of different sized crates. In the center of the room there was a large round, grey table with blueprints of future projects spread out. The rectangular tables near the far wall had labeled beakers of fluids, mechanical screws, insane torturous looking tools, and a pencil holder. 

_ Bingo! That’ll have a sharpie!  _

Quickly, you hopped into the lab and strolled down, snatching a sharpie and smiling to yourself as you imagined doodling a nice little mustache on the all evil Black Hat faces. Chuckling like a mischievous toddler you turned around and almost didn’t notice the stuttering mess in front of you. In a jolt you halted and awkwardly stared as the poor nervous wreck gawked.

“Uh...Buenos dias, doctor.” [Uh...Good morning, doctor.] You politely address him. He squealed and covered his face, cowering as though you still had a burning army of minute toast men. 

“Solo necesitaba el sharpie.” [I just needed the sharpie.] You hold your arms surrendered in an attempt to calm the scared man. “No voy a lastimarte.” [I am not going to hurt you.] 

You weren’t sure if he understood you at first but the slow and shaking ease of his tension showed that he comprehended enough. “O-oh...g-good morning to you as well...p-poltergeist…?” He hesitantly gulped and paced a few steps away from me. “Y-you can h-have the sharpie I guess...but p-please don’t do anything too rash. If you anger B-Black Hat again he may do something... _more_ _rash_.” His eyes darted to the side as he mumbled: “But I guess he can’t exactly kill you…”

You loosen your posture. The way the scientist implored made your thought of vandalization waver a bit.  _ Poor dude...he really isn’t that bad is he? How does he put up with a monster like Black Hat? How much is he abused to stay here?  _

You cleared your throat, and in an attempt to have better communication and seem less cryptic, as much as you didn’t want to, you gave a shot at speaking english. “I am s...sorry...about scaring you that night, doctor. M...my name is y/n. And it is m...my j-job to…” You begin blanking on english phrases and in a hurry to get your voice across you say what sounds right to your ears. “Fuck Black Hat.” You nod.

A wave of “ _ what” _ slammed to Flug’s face. “Fuck Black Hat?!” He said before laughing a bit. 

You shuffled awkwardly in place. “I-is...that no correct…?” You stabbed for it again, fumbling. Again. 

“I’m sorry, I laughed, but I think you mean ‘frighten’. Or torture. And I understand that because that is typically what poltergeists do. Maybe you should stick to spanish though.” He casually suggested. “Nice to meet you, y/n. You can call me Dr. Flug Slys, or just Flug if you like.” 

Maybe what you said was not exactly what you meant, but at least it was clear Flug had loosened up a good bit and he wasn’t as fearful. 

“Tienes razón.” [You’re right.] You ruffle your light and floaty hair on your ghost head. 

You both stood there and just stared at one another for a few moments. It was weird and you were tempted to just vanish on the spot…

_ I have to remember...he might be talking to me, but he is still one of Black Hat’s employees…  _ You’re mind was kinda jumbled on your thoughts as far as this doctor was concerned. He seemed nice, and actually carried a conversation - or at least  _ some  _ small talk - and as much as you wanted to see him as a nice guy...was he really?

You could at least  _ think _ so for now.

“So uh...y/n...just let me know if you need anything else…” Flug said and then got by you, still a bit anxious looking, but got over to his work table. Judging by his blueprints, he was working on quite the project. 

“En qué estás trabajando?” [What are you working on?] You asked, tilting your head at the prints. Looked like...a small robot-

Flug quickly rolled up the work. “Oh! Uh…! I-it’s a surprise!” He smiled anxiously...and there was something about that smile you didn’t trust. It’s just as you thought before: he was working for Black Hat - what if this was something to obliviate you?

“...Bien..” [...Alright..] You said with the suspicion dripping in your words.

Flug would have said something more, but when he blinked, you weren’t there anymore. “Y/n…?” He said to the room, but there was no answer. 

Damn, there was still something important that he needed to tell you…

But that would just have to wait; you had work to do! You went up there to get a sharpie, and you got a sharpie. You could try to nose around in whatever blueprints the doctor had, later. For now, you have a notorious eldritch to pester with bothersome antics.


	5. Artes y Manualidades

You finished vandalizing the hallways with your magical sharpie and pridefully beamed at your work.  _ Oh yeah...this is DEFINITELY gonna piss him off.  _

Not even a minute later a shrill aggravated shout rang through the household. You maliciously grin.  _ Looks like the big boss is awake.  _

Having successfully accomplished your mission, you quietly returned the sharpie to Flug’s lab, being aware not to make a peep just in case Black Hat could somehow hear you. You may have a way to get the hell out of there when he comes chasing after you but at the same time, you still were the  _ tiniest _ bit scared of the legendary criminal. And you were also in his territory.

Flug sat in a chair, tucked in snugly by the side of the main table. The project of little mechanical pieces were spread across the table and he was moving his hands faster than what your mind could react to hearing a loud sound in the morning.  _ Maybe he had coffee or something. If so, that was some really effective caffeine.  _

Without looking up he noticed you, much to your surprise; you hadn’t wanted to disturb him. “Oh, y/n, you left before I could tell you something!”

You glanced over to him, floating in place with a raised brow. “¿Sí?” [Yes?]

He paused in his fast-paced work and spun around in the office chair, making sure to fold the blueprints over, once again- probably in case you got too curious about them.

He looked cautiously both ways over his shoulders and even above him and under the table. “Look..you  _ really need to watch yourself _ ; Black Hat can hear more than what people are comfortable with. Just don’t say something that will make him want to go after you anymore. He already wants to destroy what’s left of you.” His head fell grimly. “...and he still can…” 

You furrow your brow...Why was he telling you this? The atmosphere filled with a familiar tense aura of bad news.

Flug looked you in the eyes, and his seriousness would have made your blood freeze. “Your soul is not in your body, but if the ray I made that brought you here worked like it was supposed to, you can still feel pain. Sure, you can dodge pain sometimes, but if you are caught off guard, it could result in the worse. This is because you are still connected to your body, but because you are so far separated, you cannot return to it.” He sighed and looked off to the side, crossing his arms in a discomforting way. 

“What I’m trying to tell you is there is a way to reconnect you right now, but if you plunge into too much danger, and Black Hat happens to harm you, your body can die, and there will be no second chance for you after that. And there is no determining whether your soul will remain here as a ghost permanently, or if you will disappear and cease to exist. I am only a scientist; I cannot predict what will happen if you truly do die. Only deadmen know that answer.” 

“...”  _ Well, this wasn’t what I thought he would tell me.  _ “¿Pero por qué me dices esto?” [But why are you telling me this?] You asked, tilting your head.

Flug hummed and then sighed. “Look...y/n, you’re not...like  _ other people that come here. _ ” He said quietly. “Obviously, you’re a poltergeist, I know- but more than that...you’re…” He shrugged, unable to clip words together. “I just honestly don’t want to obliterate you, even if it’s an order, but I also can’t stop Black Hat.” And as he said the name of the devil he looked around anxiously as if he appeared over his shoulder.

Aw...that was actually really sweet of him. So he wasn’t trying to make something to obliterate you, but what was he making? You were dying of curiosity...but it would be rude to be  _ too nosy.  _ “Gracias, Flug. Gracias por decírmelo.” [Thank you, Flug. Thank you for telling me.]

But this did  _ heavily bother you. _ Not denying that. Part of you sank to the ground.  _ That is why I still felt when I fell on the ground in the basement and when trying to escape...it’s because I really did bust my actual, physical ass. I’m linked to my body still…!  _

“¿Te importa si me voy ahora?” [Do you mind if I go now?] You asked, even if it was a rocky transition.

Flug nodded. “Of course. Besides, I need to work.” He waved you off and looked back to his project as you flew through the door.

Levitating in place and curling into a ball outside the room, you dreaded for a moment.  _ I’ve been acting so reckless and unlike my normally quiet, easygoing self...I felt invincible with these new powers, but if I happen to die here that’s it. _

You clench your fist, shuning the dark thought.  _ But I won’t…! Plus, now there’s new hope! I can still get supper with my parents at Quintonil, I can still go back to Barcelona and see my best friend...I can still go home!  _

You smiled a little bit and then continued on your way. At least you knew this, and for now, it was best to look at the positives. And it would probably be best to sink to the basement now. Just to think of another plan.

_ It’s still only the morning...what to do, what to do…. _ You drifted in circles around your new self-proclaimed room to help you think.  _ I could break a window…? No, no. I could throw the keys to this manor under a couch or something…! Hm...too simple. But still.  _

With haste, you found yourself in the living room where the cute little bear was in a maid outfit reassembling the portraits from the wall, and cleaning off the beautiful sharpie art...kind of in vain. He probably needed to replace them all. 

Quietly you snatched the keys you remembered seeing earlier and tossed them under the couch before gliding back out. Sure, you had  _ no clue _ what those keys unlocked, but at least you were doing your job of annoyances. 

But you need something else besides a few minor things. Something bigger...kinda like screwing with the pictures, but not that again... _ I need something that the whole manor will notice every step they take..that would infuriate Black Hat!  _

Looking outside a window of your prison, you saw the lovely summer blooms in everyone else’s yards but not here. All of the nice little suburban houses had masses of colorful plants ornamenting their yards. 

_ My mom loves flowers like these. We had red Nile Lilies in our front yard every year this season.  _ You found yourself thinking about home. Imagining the front yard, the inside of the house, the books on the shelves of your room...Mexico City, the shopping areas, your friends, and how much you just wanted a nice cocktail…

You slump over. Homesickness was sinking in. 

You jump up in the air. 

_ Wait! I don’t have time for sulking! If I want to make this place feel like home...I’m gonna make this place feel like home so much that Black Hat will want to piss himself!  _

The idea popped in your head and you couldn’t help but give off a Vincent Price laugh as though you could still try out for the Thriller video. 

“Espero que te guste rosa~!” [I hope you like pink~!]

_ There~! _

You shook side to side in glee as you gathered up the surplus of glittery objects. 

The basement, your room, was cluttered with cutesy little things that you were  _ positive  _ Black Hat would not appreciate at all. It was even pushing the limits of what you could handle as far as ‘cute’ goes. Combining some arts, crafts, and tapestry knowledge from your well spent kindergarten year in the good old days and your new poltergeist abilities that spoiled you so, you made hundreds of pink, sparkling flowers within twenty minutes. 

And now, it was time to share the little beauties in all of their fluorescent glory by throwing them all over the manor in a cute bombardment~!

As you exit the basement, you see that 5.0.5. had not completely finished cleaning your earlier vandalization. You giggle, as you pass by the one with Black Hat standing magnificently in a destroyed world, that you transformed into him holding a teddy bear surrounded by little children climbing up his legs. Oh, and of course the mustache. That was the main perfected piece on each frame. 

The flowers followed behind you and occasionally dropped one, making a trail as you flew through the house. The glitter is  _ definitely  _ going to stick to the carpet. 

You begin to hum the melody of that song in english you had heard before: Fireflies. The happy tune carried with you in every room. 

As you approached Demencia, she heard the song and began singing it as well. With wide dilated saucer eyes she admired your ghostly sparkling artistic project. She wasn’t afraid this time of course. Flaming toast was much more intimidating than this. 

Her jubilant spirit made you laugh, and you dropped ten or so flowers over her almost as a miniature apology for frightening her the other night. She danced in the rain of pink joy and gathered up the childish craft. 

Giggling like a kid, you continued to sprinkle your work. Until you approach the giant double doors of  _ his  _ office. 

You stopped.

_ I still have quite a few flowers left despite me pretty much visiting each main room... _ With great thoughts boiling in the walls of your mind, you grinned and lowly laughed in a borderline psychotic manner. 

You placed a hand on the doors. “Abierto.” [Open.] They obeyed and you beamed with glee from your awesome powers.   
The office was decorated with torturous looking weapons and covered with lavish furniture, just like his room. In the back there was a desk with neatly placed work, shipping orders, scripts, and contracts with other villains. 

_ Whelp! We can’t spread his bad influence!  _

“Brisa.” [Breeze.] 

A gust of wind was formed from your hand, and sent the papers on the desk flying in all directions. Some stayed there on the desk in a messed up order, some fell to the floor far from the desk, and some would have gone out the window had it not been closed. 

And without further ado, you majestically raised both of your hands and let all of the flowers float in the air and storm glitter everywhere. You laughed so much just imagining the look on Black Hat’s face when he sees what you have done. 

_ He’s gonna be so upset!  _ You continued your booming laughter, letting it ring from all the corners of the room.

But...something overpowered that joy.

A deep guttural growl of a savage, foaming at the mouth with rage. 

The flowers drop to the ground along with your hands and stomach. The room’s atmosphere became dense with tension and if you had lungs, you would have a hard time breathing. The plummeting temperature matched your icey spirit, and made it crack. 

You really stuck your head into the lion’s cage now.

You turn around, but all you see is a pitch black appendage coming for you in a blur of fused movement. 

_ Well, shit. _


	6. Destrozado

_ Run!  _

As the tentacle lunged for you, you soared upwards and casted your hand out to Black Hat’s direction, forgetting how to process the words to shout a command at the paper flowers. Without any words though, they animated themselves to life and forced themselves into Black Hat’s face, giving you some time. 

Dashing for the door, with intentions of passing through, your face flattened into a pancake as the solid slammed you with full force. Howling in pain you plummeted to the ground. You could feel your nose. It felt broken and bloody, but there was no red liquid anywhere on your hands. But you could  _ feel  _ it. 

Black Hat tore the pink defenders to shreds and sadistically laughed at your screaming agony. “You aren’t the only one who can control what you go through, my dear.” Biting your bottom lip to avoid crying, you made small whining sounds of a wounded animal as he stepped closer and closer. 

_ I should have listened to Flug…! This is it! I’m gonna die here...die for good this time! _

As the bitter tears rolled down your flushed cheeks, a slithering tentacle wrapped around your waist and hoisted your rag doll weak body off the ground. “Let’s see how much you enjoy mocking me after a couple of broken ribs, hm?” He breathed in my face with trailing drool easing down from his lips.

“N-no hagas...esto....Black Hat…” [D-don’t do...this...Black Hat...] You beg vainly grasping his wrist as he furrows his brows and grimaces in annoyance with your spanish plea. 

You swallow and speak again, but this time in english. “P-please...do not k-kill me…!” Hot water poured from your eyes and misted the air, stinging you more. Never before had you imagined you could cry so much for your life you once thought insignificant. But now as you stared at death you were aware just how much you wanted the feeling of life. 

Something almost appeared to waver in his sharp demon posture, but it manifested itself into more sick pleased thunder. “Kill you…? I’m going to do worse than that!” 

Rising panic surfaced, almost entirely numbing the blow to your nose. You didn’t want to find out what  _ worse than killing you _ was to him. 

Your old friend adrenaline greeted you, and you thrashed around in Black Hat’s grip. “DÉJAME IR! BASTARDO MALVADO!” [LET GO OF ME! EVIL BASTARD!] Your will to power boiled into seeping anger and that’s when it happened for the first time...

Something inside of you changed. Something snapped. What was this feeling...the broken feeling of everything keeping you as yourself…?

Was it sanity…? 

Sense? 

Mercy? 

You weren’t sure. Whatever it was, it left you. Packed up and didn’t leave behind any mementos of its longtime visit. 

The last thing your innocent eyes saw were the twisted emotions crossing over Black Hat. He released you, and jumped back as though you were a stove or had thrown holy water on this impure man. You weren’t even sure why, but he looked…

Scared.

Just for a moment. Maybe he was?

“What are you?!” He snarled in shock of your sudden transformation. 

You couldn’t see what he saw, so you weren’t too sure yourself. Whatever you just did, it was effective. 

It gave you  _ pride _ .

Black Hat was at  _ your _ mercy now.

In a sickly, out of character behavior, you contorted into something demonic and terrifying to the devil of all notorious beings. 

Mockingly, you smile with darkness hanging in your eyes. Your voice lowered several octaves. Wanting him to understand, your tongue effortlessly spoke beautiful, fluent english. “I’m the redemption of your victims, bitch.” 

Your hand of condemnation shot up from your side and once again, no command needed, thorny vines sprouted from your back, erupting and burning you like lava, but whatever anesthetic this force came with not only numbed your mental pain, but apparently physical as well. 

Black Hat, unprepared, just stood there dismayed and brought out his demonic appendages to shield him. Still though, the vines curled around him and melted the fabric of his nice overcoat. 

You could feel the sweet resistance vibrating from all over and his frivolous struggling. His voice blacked out in your head, so all you saw was his mouth wide open with no sound coming out. 

Black Hat looked  _ feeble. _

It made you feel... _ powerful _ . 

_ Invincible even.  _

_ And now...he can finally understand the suffering he introduced to me…!  _

Your hands rocket above your hands and your irises shined with monstrous intent. “Goodbye, Black Ha--” __

Surprising to your ears you heard something you would have never imagined; a sound that rang and stuck in your ears; a sound sure to haunt you forever. Black Hat interrupted his riddance with a shrill scream like that of a wounded wolf. There was nothing that echoed more loud and more traumatically than the tortured eldritch being wrapped and strangled by the vines constricting him and piercing his rough flesh. 

_ Your vines _ . 

_ Your torture. _

_ His blood all over you.  _

_ Black Hat is suffering by your hand.  _

_ I-I’m killing him…! _

Snapping to your senses, and in disgust by such immoral actions, you threw his inhuman bloody body across the room and your vicious aura faded back inside of you as you collapsed to the ground. Immediately your mind replayed the unbelievably, boldly wicked measure. Black Hat’s blood stained your gaunt ominous malignant figure due to your newly born vile emotion of foul contentment. 

Black Hat was not unconscious. He was just lying perfectly still on the ground ten feet away from you, bleeding on the carpet and gushing out from arterial and venous wounds. His one eye bulged with disturbance and twitched with the thought of scarring and becoming wounded from someone like you.  _ The worthless life he killed but made stronger.  _

_ What have I become?!  _

Shaking, you picked yourself up and staggered as you stood. 

“B-Black...Hat…?” You say to the mangled body expecting a response. You didn’t want to have to carry this burden... _ Even if he is Black Hat he is still a form of life! How could I do this? How did I manage to commit something that someone as dark as he could have done?! If I really just did that to the monster above monsters, what sort of OP monster am I…?! _

Suddenly the doors were banging. “Black Hat! BLACK HAT! WHAT’S GOING ON?!” The doctor’s voice penetrated the barrier. You hear him shake the knob in an attempt to open the entrance to the room. “It’s locked…” He said to the side. “Where’s the damn key?! Isn’t it on the living room table?” 

_ The key…!  _ You threw it under the couch earlier to be a nuisance.  _ They’ll never find it!  _

Frantically, you floated towards the walls and made sure you could pass through.  _ Maybe they can help him…! If he’s okay then I can’t be blamed, right? I was only defending myself….!  _

His scream echoed in your beating ear drums and drove you forward. 

You wanted to annoy him. Not torture him. 

Especially not commit a crime as low as murder. 

Even if he deserved to die, you couldn’t let yourself be the one to do that. It just wasn’t you. You can’t hurt anyone like that.  _ Anyone _ . 

You nearly completely missed the couch from the speed you sailed, but when your eyesight cleared itself to a focus, you shuffled back under and snatched the key from under the couch in one swoop. 

You moved faster than you ever had before in your life. 

So fast you slammed into Flug pinning him on the ground under your ghostly body. He stammered. “Y-Y-Y/n! Wh-wha…!”

You had no time to lose. You stood up, helped him up, and shoved the key in his hands. “¡Abre la puerta ahora!” [Open the door now!] You urgently commanded. “Tienes que ayudarlo! Por favor! Fue un accidente! Perdí el control, lo juro!” [You have to help him! Please! It was an accident! I lost control, I swear!] Rambling on and on tears burn the skin of your cheeks. 

Flug came close to tripping as you pushed him towards the door. Demencia and 5.0.5. stared at your spastic slurring they couldn’t understand. Fumbling for the keyhole at first, Flug got it in on the second stab, and twisted to unlock your sin to everyone’s vision.

“Black Hat!” Demencia shrieked.

“B-boss!” Flug pushed his way inside.

The cyan fluff ball made highly alarmed noises and looked away immediately.

As the action continued, you could only stare as you soak in guilt. 

Flug scrambled to the scene and went to first aid mode before all else. “S-sir! Are you conscious!?” He tried to sound calm but that was no good.

In an effort to make himself seem unphased, Black Hat attempted to sit up. “Of course I am, you i-” A stinging pump in his body forced him to the feet of gravity again, cutting off his insult. The way he clenched his jaw and hissed made it look even worse. 

He is  _ not  _ doing well at all. 

You really laid it thick on him.

“How am I going to move his body…?” Flug pondered his eyes darting everywhere like a solution was written on the walls. “Y/n, can you tell me what happened?” He turned to me with those wide seemingly all too trusting eyes. 

_ If he knows, that means I’ve lost his trust and new kind-of friendship…!  _ The fact dawned on you. 

Black Hat coughed. “Th-they won’t know...” He growled an octave deep all while glaring at your motionless befuddled body. “They...didn’t do it.” 

_ What is he saying…?! Of course I did it! Is he starting to hallucinate?  _

“Y/n can you help me move his body?” 

_ He’s lying! I did do this...I’m the culprit! Why is he letting me go? _

“Y/N!” 

Flug’s firm snap brought you back to attention on the present case. You don’t think you heard him the first time, but you somehow knew what he needed.

Gulping and choking back confused thoughts, you stuck out your hand as a preparatory action _.  _ Recalling proper medical procedures, the body had to be stabilized so that there was little movement as possible. “Quedarse quieto.” The command froze Black Hat so that he would not try to move on his own again.

“Levantarte.” [Get up.] You tell Black Hat’s stiff figure. Obeying, the villain’s body suspended in the air and you had control over him and every direction he could face. 

He would not look at you. He corrugated his brows and you couldn’t tell if he was suppressing his seething vexation or if he was just forced to because of your first command. Either way, you knew that he  _ hated _ being in this semi-vulnerable position. 

“Come on, let’s bring him to the lab.” Flug turned around to conduct the others, being the responsible one. “5.0.5., Demencia, clean up his office. Yes, both of you Demencia!” He reiterated to the pouting girl. 

“You can’t boss me! I’m not the maid here!” She retorted in a childish way, sticking out her tongue.

“Think about how much Black Hat will  _ appreciate _ it.” He threw his hands slightly in the air emphasizing “appreciate.”

That got her moving. 

As the doctor ran the way, leading you to his lab and medical area, you held Black Hat’s body in the air, glancing over at his shattered self and tattered clothing. 

“Lo...lo siento…” [I...I’m sorry…] You mindlessly whispered at him. 

No reaction, of course. You still had him in a still state.

Upon arrival, Black Hat was moved to a hospital bed and rolled to the back. Flug rushed to set up all of the necessary equipment, and you helped in whatever way you could, which wasn’t enough to satisfy. 

“Que más puedo hacer?” [What else can I do?] You hurriedly want to aid in any other way you can as compensation of the deed.

“Now we have to wait for him to be strong enough to answer questions.” Flug’s bag was wrinkled and precipitation developed at the top corners. He was nervous because he wasn’t sure what happened to the feared boss. He didn’t know it was you, Black Hat made sure of that for some reason. But now he was probably worrying  _ what  _ did this and  _ where  _ this ‘ _ what’ _ is.

You had to think for yourself, so you quietly dismissed yourself from the room.

_ Poor Black Hat...it really was an accident. I wanted him to suffer and pay for everything and I may have initially wished this on him, but this isn’t what I wanted...I don’t want to become some monster. I don’t want to lose control like that again…  _

Your past self would probably not believe those were your thoughts, but as it is now, you could feel yourself somehow splitting into two. This poltergeist body came with great advantages, but for everything available there has to be a price; compensation for the good given. And because there were so many ‘goods’ you did, was there a bigger price that had to be paid? If so, what was it? Why did things have to turn out this way?

The questions were too specific for you to answer, even if they seemed broad with bewilderment. As you ask the questions silently, you can just imagine one of _ those _ people who are always unwilling to help, hold up a sign saying “good luck” in a way that made you believe you would never really learn the answers.

Black Hat’s eyes flutter open. He was blinded by the bright light ahead and squinted like an infant being introduced to the new visual factor. 

A quiet, timid man’s voice broke the silence. “B-Black Hat, s-s-sir…? Are you o-oka-” 

“Like I said before, of course I am, you idiot!” He sliced through the sentence of the annoying, stuttering doctor.

“Th-that’s excellent, sir! B-but can you tell me-”

“No.” Black Hat turned his head to the opposite side of where Flug was. “That is for me to know. If it concerned you, I would let you know. The threat is gone, so there is no point in stressing.”

This perplexed and aroused more curiosity from the theorizing scientist, but he knew it was best to not continue. “Yes sir.”

Flug cleared his airway and prepared to explain to his boss what he must do, as professional medical staff would do of course. “Sir, I’ll have to ask you to stay here for the rest of the day, or until you are confident you can move without needing support. You are allowed to stand up and walk for three minutes every hour, but try to limit this opportunity that way you heal even faster. Since you are not human you will definitely heal much more quickly-” 

“Yes, I am aware of what to do when I am not feeling well.  _ You don’t have to tell me what to do _ .” He impatiently grumbled, irked by his condition.

Flug backed away, scared of the eldritch leader. “A-alright sir, if you say so...I’m gonna leave you here, but if you need something specifically you can just ring me down by pressing-”

“ _ I know, Flug!”  _ He barked, causing the poor man to jump and sprint off, leaving his lab as a sick bay. Black Hat had no tolerance for people at the moment and frankly just wanted to be left alone. 

He had been humiliated enough for one day.

_ A powerful being such as myself being disgraced and undermined by a petty fool who had the nerve to threaten me with something I am immune to…! Threaten me with death; waving it in my face, but not handing it over. How weak. Given such an opportunity that fallen heroes before them died for and they were not strong enough to hurt me to that degree. And why for…? For innocence on their name! Innocence that no one has! No one is ever born innocent into a world of sinners... _

Mentally he spat on the entire race of humans and all those living. __

Folding his arms, he had flashbacks; flashbacks to his vulnerability.  _ They dominated me, and didn’t even carry through with their mission as a poltergeist. Just...pathetic… _

Had he not been immune to  _ mortal emotions _ , maybe he would shiver at the thought of the dangerous ghost. For once, Black Hat admitted that another person under his roof was equal in his force. But absolutely  _ not  _ in capabilities or wit. He had much more under his sleeve than a typical illusionist. Only unlike those fakers, the supply under his sleeve wasn’t illusions. 

_ Damn dead people...can’t they die quietly and leave me the fuck alone?  _

There was a pat on the door. He knew immediately who it was. 

_ I guess not.  _


	7. Lo Siento

You knocked on the door, and had heard the sound of faint disgust. Knowing Black Hat was conscious, you proceed. The hinges creaked as you opened the door and peeked your head inside. Normally, you would just fly through, but in the moment you didn’t want to...you wanted  _ something _ to feel more human.

“B-Black Hat…?” You whisper, voice cracking from remaining guilt.   
“ _What?_ ” Sneered the demon. 

Rather than flinching at the grotesque rasp, you delightfully raised in the air with your ghost of a relieved smile, since at least that was a sign he was doing better. But it faded as quickly as it came. He was after all still an enemy.

Side stepping in and pacing a bit closer, but staying at a good distance, you clear your throat, but your eyes do not meet the head of the manor. It seemed really stupid of you to feel like you needed to do this - especially for  _ him _ \- but more or less it was for the sake of what was left of your morals.

“L-lo siento mucho…! En realidad no quise lastimarte…” [I-I am very sorry…! I didn’t actually mean to hurt you…] You shift in place a bit embarrassed. 

He rolled his eyes and snarled as his head turned away from you. “ _ Tsk. _ ” 

He was mad at you.

You choke on regurgitated hope. “L-lo sient-”

“Get lost. I hate apologies. Especially if they are bandaids for morals.”

_ Ouch...still an asshole of course. _

Not wanting to instigate more anger and discomfort, in a swift manner, you float to the door, eager to get the hell away. You did what you could and slapped the ‘moral bandaid’ on your wounded morals.

But you were caught with a long extended limb. 

Black Hat dragged you close to him and scowled with a force. 

“If you  _ ever _ try doing this again, you will face  _ unimaginable suffering. Understand?”  _

Fearfully, your head races up and down wanting to be released from his grip. 

“You are a poltergeist. Do you job correctly or  _ don’t do it at all and let yourself rot away forgotten _ .”  __

_ Wait...huh?  _ You weren’t expecting that next sentence.  _ Doesn’t he understand that my “job” as a poltergeist is to do this to him more…? I don’t want to kill him!  _

“ _ Of course I know that, you imbecile! _ ” He barked in your face. “And because killing me is impossible, just settle for the second option!”

_ Is he reading my mind?!  _

“What do you think? I’m guessing?  _ No shit I’m reading your mind! _ It’s easier to understand than your annoying spanish! I can translate thoughts.” 

You push off of him in vain. He squeezes tighter around your abdomen. 

“Let’s just face this, hm? I hate having to talk right now, but this must be addressed and I am a man of business.” Black Hat cooly opened a mini, one-sided conference. “I don’t think you are aware of your actual mission. You are still here so that you can get revenge on yourself. Your mission is to  _ kill me. _ But you can’t. Not only are you pathetically weak, but there is no force that is more powerful than  _ I. _ If you come to attack me, either you do your job and ‘kill me’ or just  _ die already. _ ” He used air quotations. 

“Never hold back from murder for something such as  _ innocence. _ That virtue is not available to anyone. Especially not a  _ malevolent spirit  _ such as yourself. You are too far gone for any  _ heaven,  _ if such a thing exists. So don’t beg for pity from any  _ mythological god _ when I  _ kill you myself _ .” 

He let you go and you fell ass first to the ground, busting yourself up more. 

“Now get out of here. Heed my words. That is the only truth I will ever give you. You no longer control yourself, this mission does.”

Scrambling to reach your levitating state again, you darted out of the door. Before other thoughts could process you had one that rang the loudest:  _ Fuck this shit I’m out! _

Your imaginary heart thumped in your chest as you relistened to Black Hat’s words. You knew that this experience of apology was not going to be a fun one, but there were many other ways that could have gone!  _ And just great…! He can hear my thoughts! What the FUCK?! I won’t have any privacy around the maniac!  _

Consumed by your thoughts, you didn’t notice Flug. “Y-y/n...are you alright…? Black Hat can a-act a bit more...startling...when he’s injured.” 

You stood there still a bit unsure of everything that was said to you. “S í...estoy bien.” [Yeah...I’m good.] You lie. You look to the ground, not wanting to stare at your kind-of friend’s face with your sinning eyes. 

Taking a moment to recollect yourself, you plaster on a fake smile. “Parece que se recuperarár bien.” [He looks like he will recover well.]

Flug agreed with a nod. “Yes, I-I’m sure he will...I just hope nothing like this happens again. Whatever got him could actually stand a chance at killing him...b-but then again, Black Hat did say that the threat was gone…” 

You coughed sharply, startling Flug. “Sí, la amenaza se ha ido.” [Yes, the threat is gone.] All of this lying made you sick. “N...necesito ir ahora.” [I...I need to go now…] 

Flug wrinkled his paper bag. “Y-you do….? Where?” 

_ I don’t have much that I can do now...but there is one thing.  _ “T-tengo que...continuar mi trabajo.” [I-I have to...continue my job.] Your voice punctures the air with a stab. 

_ My mission is to kill Black Hat...but I know that I just can’t. But I refuse to just pass away. I will return home.  _ You flood with confidence, and lift your chin higher. You were going to keep doing what you do best without hurting anyone too much, and in the end, things will turn out okay. 

Black Hat is wrong. 

You control yourself. 

Not this mission.

Your new “mission” is going to be getting back in your body and home where you belong. 

0X/XX/20XX

WH Research Unit and Laboratory

Log 007. Dr. Zug Slys 

The patient won’t wake. Day in, day out. It’s been about a week. One glance and it’s obvious to any doctor that this is not some simple “coma.” All signs show that they should be conscious, yet they aren’t. Their soul has been dispositioned from their body. No soul, no life; but the soul is not entirely disconnected.

There are signs that wherever they are right now, they have been in contact with abusive lifeforms or are just extremely clumsy. Possible combination of the two. The family has been located and informed of the situation. Orders are to find the patient, but with more passing time, the more connection is being lost and the probability of reconnecting the body and soul becomes more unlikely.

The doctor leaned back in his seat and huffed. It had been a long time since he had to deal with this level of shit. Not even a week in, and honestly, he was sick of it.

Dr. Zug looked over at the body he had been monitoring: your body. There were new bruises he had cleaned up some hours or so ago and even tears had started streaming from the still eyes. The body and soul definitely still had a connection, and he could only imagine what they were going through…

Not that he cared that much, if he was honest. It just meant that he had more things to write down and take note of when there was a change in the body. 

Sure, he worked for a hero organization and “saved the day” with his “countless knowledge of goodness” as the marshmallow of a boss liked to say, but this job wasn’t even in his field of choice. He craved a wilder, more dangerous side of science that was “inhumane.”

He walked over to the body...the doctor had studied it all he could for the time being, but without the severed soul in his possession there wasn’t too much he could explore or really  _ do _ with you. He wanted your soul here so he could study what all a severed spirit was capable of; what horrors were possible and to see the unimaginable darkness the pure spirit could formulate without bodily ties...it would be a truly remarkable thing to witness indeed. 

Humans are often considered “weak” because their bodily shell holds back their incredible spirits. Zug did many studies before to find that a human soul on its own - not taken by death, but just separated from the body - was one of the most malevolent, dangerous creatures. If they could imagine it, they could  _ become it. _ Become even more powerful than any other being once the soul was completely severed from the body. It would take years of work and a lot of “believing” but it could happen.

Why couldn’t he make a weapon that seperated the soul from the body himself, one might ask?  _ He didn’t have the funding for it. _ That, and he also needed more time for research because it had to be perfect.

Dr. Zug stared at your face...your empty shell. He glared.

_ You. You found a way to get seperated. Whoever you are, you are probably the most powerful thing out there right now. _

Did he hate you for that - for something you didn’t mean to do?    
No, he hated the one who did this. The one who had the funding, the research database materials... _ the one who stole HIS rightful position as Black Hat’s scientist.  _

It was because of  _ him _ that he was stuck here as “second best scientist.” It was because of  _ him  _ that he couldn’t have his fun with danger. 

_ Dr. Flug Slys. His brother. His enemy. _

If Zug had solid evidence to back it, he was sure that you were with Flug and Flug was studying you to his heart’s content. But, of course, other than some signs of abuse, he had nothing solid to show White Hat that you were indeed in Black Hat Manor, so the search for your soul continued  _ away _ from that area. 

_ The fools. _

He paced back over to his desk and leaned over the work area, his bag wrinkled and creased in frustration.  _ He needed evidence. Solid evidence so he could get White Hat to force the search into Black Hat manor and attack. _

Zug picked up a pen and clicked it a few times, staring at the empty loose leaf pad in front of him that was waiting to be scribbled on with a brainstorm, but nothing was coming to mind yet...so he did what he could and drew literal scribbles as if they could form into a reasonable thought.

Maybe if he had a way to pinpoint your location? Well, that is what he had been trying to do for days now. The same thoughts drummed in the walls of his mind, falling into the mental trash bin.

If he couldn’t pinpoint you using science...maybe he needed to look to for a more obvious or direct answer?

Zug looked over his shoulder and stared at your body. The clock in the far wall ticked away.

…

_ Of course…! _

He dropped his pen and ran over to your body.  _ This was Point A. Your soul is Point B.  _

Between Point A and Point B, there is a thin, invisible line connecting the two. He just needs to make something to follow that line and tug you right over to the point he wants you at.

And with that thought, it was all piecing together in his wicked mind.


	8. Archivos

The morning was here, the sun peeking through the curtains of Black Hat manor, radiating the inside with warmth. You sat in the kitchen at the table, waiting for more people to arrive. 5.0.5. was humming and cooking a traditional egg, bacon, and potato breakfast. 

Sure, you weren’t “part of the crew” but it was almost starting to feel like it for as long as you had been there…”long” being three days and two nights.

Demencia was the first one there, slithering up to the bear and snatching some freshly prepared bacon, gnawing down on it quickly, burning her tongue. She mini-howled at first, but despite frying the roof of her mouth, she proceeded to chow down on the pig strip and tear down like the animal she was. 5.0.5. rolled his eyes a bit and sighed, shaking his head and making a small grunt of disapproval towards her choices. 

She grabbed three more pieces of bacon and pounced to the seat next to you, eyes wide and insanely close. Perhaps it was her own way of friendly conversational beginnings. “So ghosty, how ya doin’~” She ripped off another thick slice of meat. 

Crumbs tumbled out of her mouth and some landed a bit close to you, making you slide to the side slightly to get some more distance between you two. “Uh...y-yes…” 

“How much english can you actually speak? Maybe you should practice that more…You don’t want everyone thinking you're some idiot, right?” 

Before you could open your mouth to retort, Demencia abruptly shot up, with a new expression on her face. “Don’t try to impress Black Hat either! He’s mine, got it?!” 

“W-wha…?” You furrow your brow.  _ Does she know what she’s talking about anymore. It is way too early in the morning to be doing this...  _

Demencia leaned down and glared. “What? Do you speak english in whats?” 

“What…?”

“ENGLISH MOTHER FUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT!?” She imitated Jules Winnfield in her own psychotic voice.

_ How am I supposed to answer that? I know she is off her rocker and all, but I think she jumped off her rocker then grabbed a chainsaw and just went ape shit wild on it, hacking it to little wooden splinters!  _

Your gaze avoided eye contact with the lunatic, so Demencia tried to grab your cheeks and force you to look at her. Instead her hands went  _ into  _ your face, clapping where your skull would be, vibrating your head. You fell back in shock, looking at her with wildly surprised, flustered eyes. Her goal of grabbing your attention was accomplished, and she just simply continued as you gawked at the rudeness. 

“Black Hat is mine!  _ Mine! _ Don’t think that he will like you because you’re some powerful floaty thingy! The two of us have been together longer and just because you _ want him  _ doesn’t mean  _ you _ can  _ have him!”  _ Demencia hissed between her teeth at you. 

You both exchanged looks for a moment in silence, as 5.0.5. stared at the dramatic scene which Demencia rose off an utterly wrong assumption. 

You blink.

And blink once more. 

“ _ QUE MIERDA ES ESTO?!”  _ [ _ WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! _ ] You scream finally with a startling booming, thunderous bass. The insides of Demencia, 5.0.5., and Flug, who had just entered through the door frame, rumbled and contorted around other organs in fear of your outburst. 

All of them cowered a bit, but didn’t have the strength to run. 

So they could understand, you attempted more complex english. “He killed me.  _ Killed. Murdered.  _ Destroyed my hope of _ no only getting home, but also getting home and enjoying margarita shooter!  _ Why would I like him the tiniest bite?! He’s a...a…” After noticing you said “tiniest bite” instead of “tiniest bit” you began to stumble over your raging words. 

“He’s a-” 

“ _ Watch your words. _ ” 

There beside Flug was the dark, menacing man himself, emerging from the shadows and standing tall, lips tightly pinched together in a frown, looking recovered and well. 

Flug jumped in surprise from the eldritch sneaking up behind him. 5.0.5. ineffectively hid himself behind a plate which he shakily brought up to his face, and Demencia, also nervous, slid back, slumping and waved in Black Hat’s direction. She got a grimace in return. 

You suck in some air and slowly release it. 

“Buenos dias…” [Good morning…] You awkwardly laugh.

“It seems, I’m the center of attention this morning. Like most days.” He strided over to 5.0.5. and snapped his fingers and the cyan fluff ball as an order to make his plate. The overwrought pet panicked into action to whip up his boss’ first meal of the day. He didn’t actually  _ need to eat _ , but it was a time for him to get out, stretch, and give any last-minute demands to his underlings for the day. That’s what you assumed at least from watching him.

Black Hat’s attention refocused on the two beings at the table. “But today...there seems to be  _ bad talk _ about me...is that so y/n?” You stay silent. “I don’t tolerate... _ bad talk about me under my roof.”  _

You plaster on a calm facade as you slowly begin to ease yourself down to the basement, passing through the floor at a constant, painstakingly turtle state. 

Black Hat scoffed. “I am not done talking!” He barked at your descending, increasingly transparent figure. 

_ Doesn’t matter…. _ You thought.  _ This is one of those situations where I wish I could just disappear magically, and I’m a poltergeist who is ready to take advantage of that ability right now. _

You guess Black Hat may have read your thoughts judging by the deep scowl of disapproval you caught as the rest of you seeped through the floor. 

You just took your leave now, so it was up to Demencia to handle the shit she started. 

You landed on your couch and released the captured air that had not been freed from your translucent body.  _ That was pretty tense.  _

You allowed your mind to step back and try to make sense of the puzzle pieces that were tossed at you back there.  _ Okay...so Demencia thinks I’m trying to “take” Black Hat away from her and Black Hat definitely knows that I think lowly of him, if he already didn’t piece that together…  _

You groan into the side of the soft furniture as though it was your best friend consoling you...and you really missed how your best friend  _ did _ console you.

You didn’t want to think about what Demencia was likely to try and do to you considering her rather unhealthy obsession. You may be able to just get away, but having her up your end and keeping her psychotic eyes focused on you was going to be an uneasy, very apprehensive experience. 

_ Oh well, just another thorn I have to put up with temporarily...but I will make sure I am the most obnoxious entity while I stay here. To Black Hat at least.  _

Though, it may be hard to top Demencia's annoyances.

You can just think of more great schemes. Yeah, your main goal was to work on getting out of here, but if you annoyed Black Hat enough then he would be bound to cave and just order Flug to get rid of you, and Flug didn’t seem to want to  _ kill you _ so his genius mind could think  _ something  _ up so that you could just get out and be on your dandy way.

But in order for that to happen, you needed to think of more disturbances. What should you do today...

You get into a more comfortable position and begin to tap your chin, like an attempt to find a fake beard to stroke.  _ It needs to be something creative...not too huge, but definitely noticeable… _ You scroll through a list of mental images containing a slew of knowledge about the manor until you find the one thought you needed. 

_ Ah! Simple disorganization and replacement!  _ Even if it was basic, it was sure to piss off the boss with inconvenience! 

You stroll over to the bookshelf, holding ancient text and photo albums.  _ I can empty out the drawers of his filing cabinets, rearranging the current documents with these dusty babies!  _

You smile and begin loading some old hardbacks in your arms. Occasionally you glanced down at some of the titles:  _ How to Kill Your Twin, Medusa’s Garden and Statue Reserve, 101 Ways to Dominate the World,  _ and  _ Finding the Right Scientist _ were among the more fascinating. 

In total, you pulled out ten, before you set them down on the small, black coffee table. Turning back to the shelf, you pick up a photo album and flip to the first page. There was a note written in wonderful cursive penmanship reading: 

_ Brother, it is brought to my attention that you no longer wish to speak with me. I am sorry things have to be like this, but I do hope you will at least be willing to remember the fonder years: the ones where we lived happily, ignorant to this hero and villain division. In here, I have dated and arranged some memories. I hope you at least look at it once, if not everyday. I miss you, brother.  _

_ -White Hat _

You stare at the sad ignored plea, dated from years back...hundreds of years.  _ He stays distant from his own family… _ You conclude grimmly. You had not even considered who Black Hat was _ before _ he was a villain. Clearly, someone had cared for him even though he is a despicable asshole. And that someone being  _ White Hat? _

White Hat was the top hero supplier, active in research and even donated so much to charities and other hero-oriented research facilities. They were always coming out with things for the greater good. You didn’t know much about the organization though, even if they were heroes; fear of Black Hat just spread quicker than the offered safety of White Hat.

_ They’re brothers!? They are polar opposites...I suppose it makes sense, but it also really doesn’t at all. Point one for the conspiracy theorists on this. _

You turn to the next page, venturing further. Inside of clear covers were pictures of two young boys. One obviously Black Hat, judging by the eye roll and frowning face. The other boy had an arm wrapped around Black Hat and beamed warmly at the camera. 

They were twins; very noticeably alike in many ways as far as physical appearance, yet so divergent in expression. You think back to the book you read the title of earlier:  _ How to Kill Your Twin.  _

_ To think that monster wanted to kill the one person who still genuinely cares about him!  _ Part of you was shocked, but not too much, given how he was. Compassion and gratitude is not something he is willing to break his exterior for... 

You set the album down next to the old books. You were  _ definitely _ bringing those pictures to his office and spreading them on his desk. 

_ Let’s see...musty books, childhood photos...what more?  _ You found another album, and opened it, eager to flip your nosy nose through the pages and soak in more information. 

But...It was not at all what you  _ wanted _ or  _ expected _ to see however. 

These photos were not of Black Hat. They were layouts, blue prints, notes of observations, photos of experimentation, and records of results. All of the projects were far advanced...and so many, inhumane.

Your eyes, widened with alarm and fueled by aghast sinking of your innards, read some of the titles relating to the gruesome pictures:  _ Human Splicing, Multi Purposes of Organs as Antibodies, Eldritch Decomposition (Deterioration Observation) _ ,  _ Injecting Humans with Foreign Viruses, Creating Hybrids (Animal/Human/Eldritch), Identifying Point of Insanity, Gamma Rays Against Living Matter, Regrowing Limbs, Lobotomy, Isolation, Removing Head from Body: Zombie State/Control, Freudian Mind Manipulation, Robots Capable of Digestion… _

Each experiment had complete background information and was organized in a professionally neat chronological flow of introduction, hypothesis, materials, procedures, photographic results, statistical data, conclusion, and - the most horrific to read - the application.  __

“Cual  _ es _ esto…?” [What  _ is _ this…?] You gasp in horror.  _ Impossible! These can’t be Flug’s…! Can they?  _

Clammy hands, and shaken emotions engulf you, and you drop the book. Your ghostly limbs drifted numbly, and your traumatized mind desperately searched and called out for the subconscious and dormant sections of thought willing to aid you back to serenity. The pictures and words burned into your eyes and threatened to tattoo your brain permanently...picturing the images of violent gore, bloody insides, horrific screaming faces of humans, animals, and ungodly hybrid creations being brought to a painful reality from within a wretched lab, disassembled limbs, severed veins and organs, lengths of scattered organs, doomsday devices tested on unwilling victims, manipulation, loss of control, panic, insanity, and finally leading down in one way or another to an awful, treacherous, demise- 

_ They really did all of this…why am I so surprised..? I am staying in a manor filled with the world’s most wanted criminal masterminds... _

Slowly and reluctantly you let yourself look at the open page of the cursed bindings. There was a picture of the mastermind: stained lab coat, tinted goggles, rubber gloves, and, most notably a paper bag covering whatever expression. Below that was the name of the wicked one this belonged to. You strain your eyes to read the name, but your senses pick up another presence. 

“Y-y/n….! W-what are you d-doing?!” Squealed a shocked male voice, muffled by paper and a couple octaves higher than usual. 

Whipping around, you barely see the doctor as he dives to the floor, scrambling to the book, slamming it shut, and pressing it tightly against his chest. “W-w-what a-all d-d-did you see?!” 

You stay quiet, paralyzed. 

“Oh god...l-look...don’t panic...Y-you could harm yourself i-if you d-do...Th-this isn’t-” 

You launch yourself behind the bookshelf and remain hidden from the mad scientist. Why did you think there was any good in him? Just because he was a little nicer and seemed the most sane? The things in that book were just  _ horrid...you should have known better. _

You quiver, not seeming or feeling very powerful. You felt unsafe and exposed, giving you the urge to hide yourself further to the point of cowering behind the bookshelf of dark secrets.

Flug made a small strangled sound from the other side and you heard a solid hit the coffee table, as he dropped the book back down.

“...Y/n….please listen.” He said as he cleared his throat. “First of all, if you panic, you can hurt your physical body so try to be calm and p-please….stop cowering from me, I’m really not planning to do anything to you….” 

The sincerity reached your ears and something about his voice made you ease up. Suddenly, you notice a fast thump in your transparent chest, though you had no organs because you were a poltergeist; it was a sign from your body that you were going into shock somewhere and needed to calm down before it became untreatable. Taking in a deep breath and releasing it slowly, you can feel the hammering die down to normal. You repeat this over and over, staying still and recollecting yourself just as Flug told you. 

Then, listening to the second command in Flug’s previous statement, you float back through the bookcase and face the eyes of the doctor. You noticed how misted his goggles were and the sag in the paper mask covering him. His slump in his shoulders adjusted to a little more normal posture upon seeing you come out. 

Just by looking at how Flug was now and thinking about how the person in the book held himself, your mind eased back to some senses...yes, Dr Flug was evil, but the man in front of you  _ was not the same man in the book _ . Something had to have changed dramatically if that  _ was  _ him _.  _ You reassure yourself, descending downwards until your feet pressed against the ground of the basement.

“Th-thank you…” He whispered and shuffled in place. 

Lifting his head, he met your gaze and began. “The scientist in the photos...the one who did all those things...he’s my, uh- his name is Zug... He has an obsession with, well, insane projects and illegal studies.” 

You nod, following along so far. 

“He’s...known as an ex-criminal, but I believe he is still the same as before as far as his mindset goes...He works with Black Hat’s brother…” He fidgeted uneasily and sighed. “Look, y/n...I have n-nothing against you or anything, b-but I c-c-can’t give you much information about the two of them, okay? I-it's highly classified and th-the boss would s-skin me!” 

You would pout, since you wanted more information to be completely appeased, but knowing that the person in the pictures was  _ not _ Flug made you feel better by thousands of notches. Even though he was still working with evil, he wasn’t  _ that twisted. _ Or maybe he is and is holding back, but for now your nerves were eased. You tried to smile and let Flug know that it was okay. After all, you were the one who went snooping into other’s privacy. 

“THERE YOU ARE GHOSTY! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU!!!” Demencia slammed through the door and ran down the stairs in one swift movement. 

The abrupt switch of atmosphere took you back for a moment, and threw the previous conversation under the rug. You resiliently sprang to action cause this was a matter of life or death knowing her.

Even if you are already “dead.” 

_ Oh lord, this again?!  _ “¡Demencia, detener!” [Demencia, stop!] You wail as you dart like a jet into the air, avoiding the crazed lizard girl. 

Startled by the change, Flug curled himself under the coffee table for safety. “Demencia! They said stop!” 

“I don’t care! I will not let this go! I HAVE ENDURANCE!” She screamed, continuing her dangerous game of tag outside of the basement and down one of the many halls. “BLACK HAT IS MINE, BITCH!!!” 

_ Ugh...once she’s worn down, I can finish my nuisance for the day… _

A lightbulb switched on and flickered in the back of your head, comically spreading a devilish grin to your cheeks.

_ Or...I could kill two birds with one stone~!  _

_ Two annoyance ideas for one day...hell yeah!  _


	9. Unidos

Demencia was still in pursuit, chasing you wildly up, down, and through walls.  _ Just as planned.  _ You smugly grin. All you need is for her to keep sprinting anywhere to get you.  _ Anywhere and everywhere in the manor.  _

You laugh, releasing some of your cunning intentions. “¡No pares ahora, Demencia! En el momento en que lo haga, lo voy a robar!” [Don’t stop now, Demencia! The moment you do, I’m going to steal him!] You mocked to stoke her fire. 

She growled a bit. “I have no clue what you are saying ghosty, but just know that when I get a hold of you, you’re gonna get it!” 

You turn the corner and speak to Demencia’s understanding. “Then come and get me!” You throw out your arms as mockery and dive into Black Hat’s office, snickering.  _ Now I just have to wait.  _

Sharply, with a flicker of a grievous thought in mind, you turn around to check.  _ Nope. No Black Hat. For now. _

The door flew open not a second later, and Demencia found you sitting lounged in Black Hat’s nice chair, with your feet propped on the desk. “What took long?” You say in choppy english. 

“That’s not your chair!” Demencia fumed. “Only me and Blacky can sit there! DO YOU HEAR ME?!” 

You look down at your fingernails, observing how...transparent they were. It surprised you a bit that you didn’t notice them until now as you were pretending to ignore Demencia. 

“Hm?” You hum looking up. 

Demencia launched herself back up in the air, missiling towards the desk. Right before she could grab hold of you, you quickly float up above her head, and she hits the chair, messing up some files from his desk as she is at it. 

_ It’s working…!  _ You examine with a cheshire grin.  _ Category 5 hurricane Demencia in Black Hat’s office has landed as predicted!  _

As she pounced and slithered on the walls to get you in midair, where you were floating, she knocked over pictures, vases, books, papers, and dipped the corner of Black Hat’s computer, but didn’t damage it. 

Another thought popped in your head and, avoiding getting snatched by the crazed hybrid girl, you dove down and hastily typed in some music to the computer. Specifically, “I’m a Barbie Girl” which was sure to annoy him when he went to go find his music files of Creature Feature and Voltaire or whatever it is he listened to. 

_ I can’t wait to see the look on his face-! _

You laughed kicking the air, but ceased when you felt Demencia jump right through you, pulsing an odd sensation throughout your figure. You gasp as the living cold-blood passed through your torso, and then feel yourself latch to her involuntarily, moving in the same direction she was heading. 

“¡¿Que caraja es pasando?!” [What the fuck is happening?!] You cry out. Demencia yelped and you both dove into the window at full force, shattering the glass and watching the shards sprinkle around you. You saw one of the clear pieces hit Demencia’s upper arm, and seep out capillary blood. 

More peculiar, your same arm, correlating to the one Demencia had harmed, began to sting as though it was hit too, and the back of your head felt bruised and weary. 

Despite being surrounded by glass Demencia began to flail. “GHOSTY,  _ GET OUT OF ME!!! LET ME GO!!! _ ” 

Your bodies had merged together. You were connected to Demencia’s shoulder and back making the two of you look like a really bad video game glitch. 

You squirm around and tell yourself to pass through, but it wasn’t working; you couldn’t feel the other limbs of your lower body. Your figure was inside of her, aside from the upper body, arms, and head. 

_ We’re stuck!  _ You conclude in terror.

Just as you reach your conclusion a ragefully eldritch stands in the doorway, snarling and growling at the two of you.

_ Oh shit, shit, shit, SHIT!  _ You can feel your unattached heart pound...unless it was Dementia's heart. In desperation, you try to sink through the floor but it doesn’t work when attached to a  _ living person _ . 

Demencia squeals like a pig, noticing the ginormous mess she made and the vexed Black Hat. She was  _ NOT _ willing to stick around. She tried to slither up and through the hole in the window to the outdoors so she could snake into another room on the opposite side of the manor. However, much like your situation, she could not scramble outside, because you were connected to her and could not leave the walls of the manor. 

Ignoring the friction, Demencia continued to thrash against the window, genuinely panicked, but all it was doing was scratching up both her hands and yours. “¡Demencia, detener!” [Demencia, stop!] You call to her from her shoulder, but she refuses to slump in defeat.   
Suddenly, booming laughter comes from behind you two and you both freeze from the deep wicked thunder pounding on your eardrums. “You _IDIOTS_!” Black Hat happily laughed in sadistic contentment at your struggling horror and pathetic situation. “I have no clue how you managed this, but I have to admit, this is the most amusing sight I’ve seen since I left an entire dimension in ruins.” He grabbed his abdomen still vocalizing his mocking mirth.

You and Demencia exchange glances, unsure of what to do. 

_ Well...if we are stuck together, we are going to need to work together… _

Demencia’s face lit up. “Ghosty! I just understood what you said! Well, thought!” She squeaked in alarm to you over the psychotic boss’ merriment.

Your eyes widened, confused, but at the moment, this could work to your advantage. It was almost similar to how Black Hat knew what you were thinking at a certain distance. 

_ Demencia! We can bicker more later, but right now we have to get out of here!  _

She nodded, listening. 

_ Good, good...okay. You’re quick right? Slither up the wall and closer towards the ceiling. Do not go over Black Hat’s head okay? He could reach us better if you do that. _

Nodding once more she gets to the walls and sprints out. As you both reach the hall, you hear Black Hat yell at you both, but it was too late. 

_ Alright! Don’t stop! Get to Flug’s lab. _

Demencia wrinkled her nose. “Who made you the boss? I’m the one moving!”

Irritated by her incompetence, you rolled your eyes.  _ Flug can tell us what the hell is going on, and maybe he can find a way to separate us. _

“Yeah, well it’s your fault, ghosty! Why did you do this?” She barked in your face. 

_ I know about as much as you in this situation! I’m still getting used to being a poltergeist. Besides, I remember correctly: you jumped into me and now I’m stuck!  _

Demencia sneered. “You instigated, dumb ass! You should have known better than to rile me up!” She dropped from the wall and banged on the lab door, hoping Flug would answer. “Flug, hurry up!” 

_ I bet he’s not in there yet. He was in the basement last time I saw him...before you started trying the chase me around over a petty matter… _

Demencia ignored you and knocked again, huffing. “This is  _ not _ a petty matter! Black Hat and I are practically soulmates, and I refuse to have a stupid ghost take him from me!” 

You slap your hand to your face and drag it down, groaning.  _ Demencia...I don’t like Black Hat. Not the slightest bit. You can have him; I don’t care!  _

Demencia’s spine straightened out and her ears perked up. “Wait...you don’t...?” She puzzled, turning her head to stare at you with giant, dilated eyes.

You sigh, grateful that she is starting to comprehend you, even if she’s slow as hell.  _ That’s right. I don’t. It’s like I was trying to say earlier: Black Hat killed me and displaced me from my original home. Now I can’t leave here and go find my actual body. I honestly...I…  _ You feel yourself choke on your own thoughts.  _ I want to go home. You are so diluted by your own sick infatuation with the monster that I doubt you see just how much of an asshole he really is…  _ You didn’t deliver that in a rude or aggressive way. It was more mournful and somberly said if anything. It was sort of a pity just how idiotic Demencia acted.

Demencia was silent for a moment. “Oh, okay...I guess. I get that.” She shrugged her shoulders and you bounced from the shoulder you were connected to. “Just, don’t think he’s a complete asshole, okay? Black Hat is more than just a powerful eldritch. He has a past and a reason for his behaviors. Get to know him before you judge him as one thing.” 

Her words were said so simply, but they touched you with great meaning, considering it was rare you heard her formulate something that meaningful.  _ I didn’t know she was capable of saying something like that… _

“Saying something like what?” Demencia asked you. 

You feel like smacking your face, completely forgetting that your minds were linked. 

Before you could speak, Flug ran down the hall catching his breath. “W-w...why did you c-call me- Oh!” He looked up and immediately noticed the problem. “H-how o-on earth did th-this happen?!” He shrieked in bewilderment. 

“Ella saltó a través de mí.” [She jumped through me.] You quickly blur out in spanish to Flug, leaving out details.

Demencia nodded. “Yeah, they made me all upset and what not, and so I lunged at them and now I can also understand their thoughts and spanish!” 

Flug gulped and opened the door to the lab letting you both in. “Oh d-dear...you two c-collided.” He stammered. You both give him blinking, empty stares. “W-well...it takes a f-few days for a poltergeist t-to develop entirely a-and get the hang of all of their conscious and unconscious c-capabilities. Y-you must have b-been in the final stage...getting the a-ability to p-possess living material…” 

You are taken back and shake your head in surprise, alarming Demencia too. “Espera…¿puedo poseer cosas?” [Wait...I can possess things?] 

Flug’s bag ruffled with some shock himself. “Y-you didn’t know…? I’m s-s-surprised you h-haven’t already t-tried! B-but listen...when Demencia jumped through you, you m-must have been doing s-something requiring a physical form to certain parts of your body. J-judging by the stance, she passed through your torso while your arms were solidified c-causing this.” He gestured to the two of you. 

Demencia awkwardly shifted on her feet. “Yeah, okay thanks nerd, but how can they get outta me?” Demencia bluntly interrupted, wanting nothing more than the effect to be reversed and not caring about explanation. 

_ Demencia, that’s what he’s going to tell us!  _ You thought in response to her rudeness. 

“I wanna know now!” She barked in your face. 

Flug looked confused between the interaction of the two of you since he didn’t hear your last statement. “Uh...ah, th-that’s the thing…” Flug said snapping your attention back. “I uh….can’t help y-you. Y-you both need to separate by n-natural means. Forcing a p-poltergeist out of someone will o-only harm the p-person whom the s-spirit is latched on to...The only w-way to successfully get a ghost off of a person is an exorcism, and doing that will k-kill y/n.” 

You stay silent and look down. You have no clue  _ how _ to get off. 

“So, you are saying with  _ all _ of your genius and  _ all _ of your scientific knowledge, the smartest person in the house has  _ no clue _ how to separate us?!” Demencia groaned and crossed her arms. 

Flug nervously sweated. “I...I could t-take a few guesses, but that’s a...correct...statement…” 

_ Don’t push him Demencia. I’m sure we can find a way out on our own.  _ You think to her, hoping she won’t yell at the timid little doctor anymore. 

Demencia rolled her eyes, not replying to you verbally. “Can you  _ at least _ tell us of a way that you think we could separate?” 

Beads of sweat penetrated the paper bag and streamed down his visible neck. He tugged on the collar of his shirt for more air, and then clapped his hands together holding them steady by his chest. “...h-have you two….t-taken the time to just t-talk together…? I-I hear if you get further acquainted with the ghost inside of you, there is a b-better chance that y/n can ease out of you and no one will get hurt….I’ve only  _ heard  _ of this though, a-and I don’t know if I trust the source…” 

Demencia answered abruptly. “We’ll do it! Come on, ghosty!” She jumped up on the wall and began to run across the higher section. You dangled off of her shoulder like a doll, watching Flug slump and close the lab door behind you. 

As Demencia slithers around objects she speaks to you. “Alright ghosty, we gotta know more about each other. It’ll be like a cool sleepover kinda event, except I really hope you  _ don’t  _ sleepover because I want you offa me!” 

She jumped off of the walls and landed in front of a door. “Okay! Let’s start talking!” She opened the door to the room and you once again see her room just as it was before:  messy, punk, filled with a jumble of rock vinyls, cut out pictures of Black Hat, and wild plants.

She jumped on her bed, landing on her own stomach since you were connected to her shoulder and back, and were forced to look at the ceiling. Then, she began moving around more, and you flung around in all directions. “It’s hard to find a comfortable position like this...I know!” Quickly, she simply sat up. “There! That’s good enough!” 

“Hm… So how exactly are we gonna do this, ghosty…?” Demencia asked.

You sighed and looked up, thinking for something that would suffice. What exactly did Flug mean by saying “get acquainted further?” You shrug your shoulders and Demencia feels your movement on her back. “Well, to start, my name is y/n, not ghosty. You know that right?” You spoke in Spanish, but Demencia heard your words to her own understanding.

“Oh! Your name is y/n? I heard it before I think...I just didn’t remember it.” Demencia admitted. 

“Alright y/n! My name is Demencia...but you already knew that...hm…” She tapped her chin with one of her hands trying to think of something. 

Suddenly she jolted. “Do you like rock?! I love playing the electric guitar! Can you play any instruments? I can!” She erupted with questions.

“Whoa! Y-yeah…” You would have jumped away from her if you weren't attached to her. “I have listened to quite a few rock songs, and I taught myself how to play instruments with some tutorials, but I’m not all  _ that _ good.”

She excitedly sucked in the majority of the air in the room. “ME TOO!” She flailed. “I watched YouTube tutorials and such and then I played the songs back on my guitar and now I can play it on my own! I can even make my own songs too! I made a song about Black Hat! Want to hear it?!”” 

You nod and smile a bit, even if you did find her a bit overly hyper. “Really? That’s pretty cool. I love trying to make songs. It’s relaxing...and once you find the right notes you get a great feeling of…” You trail off trying to think of the word. 

“Success!” Demencia finished for you. “I know what you mean! Flug listens to my playlist when I force him! Then he yells when the guitar vibrations break his beakers… I think he doesn’t like my music either now that I think of it…” 

You begin to feel a little sad for the poor crazy lizard girl. In a way, all she seemed to want was some attention. You both sat there quietly for two long seconds before you spoke again. “Hey, what if you made something, and when you finish making it, I can play it over the intercom? Everyone can hear it that way.” 

Dementia's ears perked. “You would do that?” Her eyes widen, getting much closer to yours. “You would help me play my songs through the house?!” 

“Of course.” I grin. “It would be great.”  _ For Black Hat’s annoyance, my nuisance work, and Demencia’s contentment.  _

Demencia wrinkled her nose. “Oh…” She read your thoughts and slumped back. 

You see her dramatic change and immediately try to console her. “Oh, no…! I didn’t mean it just for that, really!” You feel your small organ in your chest drop slightly. “I didn’t mean that in an asshole way! I would mainly do it because you’d want me too. Your song is going to be amazing, and in the end, it’ll really benefit both of us…!” 

Demencia looked down at the floor still. “Hey...come on, I’m telling the truth. It was just a ‘poltergeist’ joke in my head…” You shift around and place a hand on her shoulder, now floating in front of her. “Prometo que no era lo que quería decir…” [I promise that is not what I meant…] 

You both quickly make eye contact, eyes bulging. 

_ You were separated. _

“Y/n…! It worked! You’re offa me!” Demencia leapt up. “Oh, and I have no clue what you said a minute ago…but whatever you did, you did it!” 

“¡Sí! Finalmente.” [Yes! Finally.] When you were trying to console and comfort her, you were able to slip off somehow.  _ Maybe it was because I was reassuring her…?  _ “Para ser honesto, realmente no sé lo que hice…” [To be honest, I don’t really know what I just did…]

Demencia stared at you blankly and nervously laughed. “Yeah, uh...I don’t know what you are saying anymore, y/n…” 

“Oh.” You forgot that she wouldn’t understand you. You think of something simple to say that she would understand and leave you on mutual terms. 

“Ah…¿amigos?” You stick out a translucent hand as a peace offer. 

Demencia beamed, delighted and comprehending your gesture. “Hell yeah, mi compadre!” She annunciated every vowel and consonant. It sounded really bad, but she grabbed your hand and shook it once before pulling you a hug that you weren’t expecting. 

“...it is ‘compadre’ right...meaning buddy?” She added after releasing you from her tight grip. 

You nod and small laugh, glad your lungs didn’t feel the price of that tight hug. 

_ Close enough. _


	10. El Sustento

Since the idea came to mind, Dr. Zug worked endlessly, slugging back Cuban coffee shot by shot. He refused to rest until this was done. At one point or another, the line between Point A and Point B would reveal itself - he just had to be ready to take note and capture it. Failure was not an option when the window could be so slim. He aimed for perfection  _ and perfection he would have. _

Zug loomed over his work area and moved his gloved hand across the table to grab his tool. All he needed to do was tweak the machinery just a little...the detail work was so fine and concentration was an absolute must; any wrong move could be a set back for hours, even days-

The door to the lab swung open. “Hey, Zuggy bug, White wants-” 

“How many times have  _ I told you to KNOCK?!” _ Zug shouted at the half asleep, dopey looking blue and pink girl in the doorway.

“I did knock, but you didn’t answer so I thought I could just come in…” She said with half closed lids and a small smile, completely used to reactions like this. “Anyway, White wants you to come up for breakfast! You’ve been closed in here for two days...have you slept?” She asked with a genuinely caring tone.

“Clemencia, do I  _ look _ like I have time for a meal?” He glared, his tool still in hand. Thankfully for him, he had not touched his work yet.

“Everyone looks like they have time for a meal…” Clemencia said with an added laugh. “C’mon, let’s go!” 

The doctor already knew that the persistent unicorn wouldn’t leave him alone until she got her way, so he huffed and put his things down. “I’m not staying for pointless chatter.” 

“Whatever you say, Zuggy!” She drunkenly hung on him as he came out of his little reclusive coop. Normally, if anyone tried to hang on him or lean on him like he was some loveable carebear, he would push them off and yell at them, but after years of trying that with Clemencia, he gave up and accepted his fate. Plus, she was stronger than what people took her for, given her drunkenly stumbling exterior. For as much work as he applied to her capabilities, he should know.

The air of the manor was all too pleasant: colors were vibrant, rooms were lavishly decorated differently but still held the same joyful, bright scheme. The place practically always screamed “welcome!” It was almost sickeningly sweet to the cranky. This was the exact opposite work he was going for, but at least the pay was pretty good and this was the best facility open to him. 

The smell of freshly scrambled eggs, french toast, and bacon amongst other things wafted through the air and past Zug’s paper mask which was unsuccessfully filtering the happiness that radiated off of their boss. 

There he was: White Hat. The gleeful eldritch loved making breakfast for everyone in the morning, even if he could easily hire someone else to do it. “Good morning!” He beamed to Clemencia and Zug. 

6.0.6 was at the table, morning grimace on the dull purple bear’s face. That was the closest actually ‘welcomed’ face to the scientist. 

Zug sighed. “Morning.” He spoke curtly and went right to sit at the table. He didn’t even feel like eating...though, the bacon scent was making it difficult for him to hold back.

“Good Morning, White!” Clemencia practically sang and bounced over to the happier man. 

“Nice to see you, my shining star!” White beamed and planted a small smooch on Clemencia’s cheek as he handed her a plate with a heart-shaped pancake and lots of fruit. “I made some fresh-squeezed strawberry lemonade in the fridge just for you!” He added, booping her nose and then moving on to the next two plates.

One had just meat - bacon, ham, and leftover turkey leg from last night. White skipped over and placed it down in front of 6.0.6, not minding the little growl the beast made as he was petted. At this point, White registered the noise as a ‘thank you.’

“And for you! How’s my hard-working, bright-minded doctor?” The talking marshmallow said, placing the plate of eggs, bacon, and toast down in front of Zug, just the way he liked it.

Zug sighed looking at the plate. It was thoughtful of course, per usual. He would be lying if he thought any less of the offering. White had a special way of touching his heart, reminding him he did indeed have one, small as it was...even if the touch was a completely unexpected attack hug from behind at times. Metaphorically and literally.

“I’m fine. Working on the patient.” He mumbled, picking up his fork and poking around the egg. 

“Oh, y/n? I do hope we find that soul soon...I know you can do it! If there is any one genius in the world knowledgeable enough, it is most certainly you!” White bent down and planted a kiss on the side of Zug’s paper bag. Another benefit of wearing the bag around an all-too touchy, very loving employer. 

White circled around the table, not going to get his own plate yet, but rather got some black coffee he had just made. He had to make sure his employees were comfortable and happy before he could relax. This was his treat, afterall, and it was an honor to do this.

He put the coffee in front of Zug, pushed in Clemencia’s seat for her as she sat, and then finally picked up his plate and sat at the head of the table with a happy little hum. “There we go! Everyone alright? Can I get anything else?” 

Everyone shook their head; White definitely did enough.

“Right!” He nodded and picked up his utensils to chow down with proper etiquette. “I’m glad everyone could make it this morning. I know you have been very hard at work, doctor, and I appreciate it, but you do need to remember to take breaks.” 

_ Oh boy, here’s that talk again.  _ “I was pacing myself, sir.” Zug replied in the same tone he always did anytime this subject was brought up. So what if it had been two days? He was invested and that was the best time for him to work the most efficiently. 

“I’m sure you were. You always are.” White Hat smiled, but with a little bit of an edge as he knew Zug’s statement wasn’t true. He may act nice and trusting, but he was no spring chicken...and did not quite appreciate it when Zug treated him like one and said the same thing over and over. He would have to address this later.

“Clemencia, how are the client stats?” White asked, shifting things and checking up on other sides of the business. This is what he used breakfast for after all: a casual, relaxed meeting.

Clemencia almost missed that she was addressed, and propped her head up with her arm. “It’s going pretty steady...since that airport attack a few days ago, there’s been a rise in heroes looking into stocks and some more requests to book a meeting, but that’s pretty normal…” Her voice was slow paced and sounded like someone who needed more sleep, but that was normal too. 

“Yes, I noticed that as well.” White Hat nodded, taking a bite of toast and washing it back with some water. “Of course, this is to be expected since...well,  _ you know… _ ” He waved his fork, not even wanting to address the name of his brother. ‘Black Hat’ was a sensitive topic, and if everyone at the table knew what was best for them - which, at this point they did - then it was better to not make any mention of the name in whole.

There was silence at the table for a moment as White Hat looked down at his plate, but it wasn’t too long. “Hate to make you talk too much, doctor, but has anything else happened to y/n’s body?” He shifted it right back to Zug, who was sneaking some bacon under his bag to munch on.

“Not really. They’re still sleeping away.” He said, a bit muffled by the food, but he chewed and swallowed. “...I’ve been working on a way to track where the soul is. I have an idea, but I need to keep working on it.” 

“Care to elaborate?” White Hat said with a bright smile, wanting to hear the ideas Zug had...even though he knew Zug wasn’t much of a talker.

Zug looked at his boss, then at his plate. He was pretty much done, even if he only ate about half of it. He huffed and sat up a little straighter. “So we have the patient’s body, right? Right. Well, since there has been bruising, crying, scratches, and whatnot, we know - or at least  _ I know - _ that they are still connected.” 

“I hope they aren’t suffering…” White Hat mumbled looking down. He was very genuinely worried about the fact that the body seemed to be showing such signs. It made him desperate to locate you.

“Yeah.” Zug said, quickly shoving the marshmallow’s concern for you aside. “So they are connected to the body even if they aren’t  _ inside their body. _ The more their soul solidifies into a ghost and becomes independent from the body, the connection is going to get weaker, but since it is still active, I might be able to make something that basically attracts the soul back to the body.” 

White Hat furrowed his brows a little and raised his hand like a confused student. “It’s a wonderful thought, doctor, but...if they are stuck somewhere like you mentioned before, will they actually be able to follow it back over here to where their body is? I thought you said that once released in a certain location, a soul can only move so far and so y/n is basically trapped wherever they are...”

“That’s right.” Zug said, ignoring the fact that Clemencia had fallen asleep on her pancake. “They are stuck. But the more important thing is that if I make something that attracts the soul back to the body, I can program it so that it also pinpoints the location of the soul.” 

White Hat still looked confused, so the bagged scientist pushed back his chair, standing and took up his plate. “Ghosts and poltergeists give off a certain energy; they are like candles in a pitchblack room. If I make something that attracts the soul, the soul is going to be easier to pinpoint because the patient’s desperation to get back to the body will radiate a particular energy force unlike the ones on Earth’s magnetic field. You get what I’m saying?”

Something seemed to click because now White Hat nodded and hummed with an “Ahhh…” He stood up as well, noticing Clemencia in her pancake and very carefully moved her head to see if she was going to wake up, but no, so he picked her up instead.

“So you’re working on something that can attract their soul to their body as well as something that will identify their energy so you can locate them..! That’s brilliant!” White Hat beamed. Naturally, he didn’t expect anything else.

And from the look under Zug’s bag, he didn’t need to be told, but it was a nice pet to the ego. Being reminded he was the most knowledgeable one here seemed with the trip to here from his lab. Breakfast was alright too. 

Dr. Zug headed back to the lab after 5 more minutes of calmly listening to his boss’ yammering on and after petting his favorite person here. Or animal. Whatever they considered 6.0.6. He just needed to complete the devices or get a stroke of luck with the right frequencies from the intangible lifeline that connected the body and the soul. He doubted that the later would have happened in the time he left-

But when he entered his little private mechanical cave, there was beeping from the computer- the monitors were going crazy. “What the-” He slammed the door shut and bounced over to his work area where he had set everything up.

He quickly, but still in a controlled manner, typed in his passcodes and looked at the readings.  _ I can’t fuckin believe it. _

Somehow you managed to get in the  _ perfect position for a lifeline reading _ . The scientist wasn't sure  _ how _ but it looked like you were...half solidified, half not? It was as though you were stuck on another lifeform. Did he know why they hell you were like that,  _ of course not, but this was too perfect. _

“Good, just stay like that…” He murmured to himself as he hit record and worked on getting the system to pinpoint the abnormal energy. This would save the time of even having to make the first device if he could just save this reading.

The load was taking forever, but thankfully, the window of time in which you were ‘stuck’ didn’t seem to be closing. Still, Dr. Zug rushed his system, muttering some impatient and vain curses under his breath. 

The bloop sound of a successful load and save broke the cycling of mutters and made the doctor’s head jolt up quickly to see the result: 

**Identification complete: Abnormality; Demencia crossed with [Unknown].  
** **Threat: Extremely Dangerous.** **  
****Location: Black Hat Manor.**

The bluelight words reflected off of the lenses of his goggles like glowing success. His theories were correct, and this satisfaction pulsed in him, to the edge of his lips, curling them up in a twisted, hidden grin. Once White Hat saw these results, he would have no choice but to go play hero with all of them and invade Black Hat Manor for  _ your sake.  _

The time was finally upon them:  _ finally. _ It had been too long since Zug got to play with his more dangerous, unacceptable gadgets, and more importantly, he would get his chance to settle things right on the doorstep of his dreams...and this was his “righteous excuse.”

“Your reign as the most feared scientist has come to end, Flug.”


	11. Garabatos

A new day called for a newly devised plan. Half of your plan from yesterday’s layout didn’t happen, so you decided to save it for another day, but today...you had a new scheme. It was just too perfect to pass up this opportunity: prank calls! No, not just regular old prank calls where you distort your voice to your best ability, applying bad accents and nonsense scenarios. Absolutely not that! 

You were gonna copy other people’s  _ exact voice. _

Earlier this morning, as you paced in the basement, staying far from the snoring of the other residents on the floor above. You had been rethinking events from the past days, playfully mocking other’s voices, trying to devise a day plan as you float alone unable to rest. 

“...I need something to get on his nerves today, but not something  _ so  _ bad that he tries to murder me…Or I accidentally try to murder him. Again.” You speak to yourself and shove that last thought to the side. 

“I can’t risk him barking and actually snapping me…” 

You feel your eyebrows stitch closer together and you make your best Black Hat frown and give a mock voice. “Poltergeist fool! I won’t hesitate to kill you next time!”

You slap your hand over your mouth and your eyes bulge. Your voice was raspy and deep much like the eldritch… _.too much _ like the eldritch…

“What’s this?! I don’t talk like that!” You intentionally screeched like Black Hat. Once again shocked, your jaw dropped and you looked around the room frantically, at first believing that  _ he was in the room somewhere.  _ But you couldn’t find him anywhere.

A bit puzzled, you theorized that maybe... _ just maybe _ ...it actually was your voice, and somehow you had the ability to morph your voice to sound exactly like a person you intended. The other day, Flug did tell you that your poltergeist abilities were still fleshing out...

You cough.  _ Oh my god...what the fuck is happening…?  _

“Ah...t-testing normal?” It was just you. Good ole original y/n voice like you wanted. 

_ Alright...um…What would Flug say?  _ “Th-this is impossible!” 

Nope! It wasn’t. That sounded exactly like Flug.

“ARROO!” You exclaim like 5.0.5. 

“This is incredible…!” You jump up with Dementia's voice.

“Can you imagine all the things you can do with this?” You speak to yourself as though you were your best friend and having an engaging conversation.

“Why yes, yes I can~!” You slide over to the side as though when you used your own vocals you were an entirely new person. “Matter of fact...I have a great idea!” You smile wider than a mischievous opossum.  _ I’ll need to wait until they are all awake though. The phone ringing and voice transition would wake them all... but this is AMAZING! I did not see this ability coming!  _

You throw your head back and give a chilling evil laughter identical to Black Hat’s.  _ Oops...I should probably wait till morning before I make anymore of a racket... _

And  _ that  _ is why you are going to go prank call some people! You suppress a giggle. No one here was aware of your new special ability, and you were gonna keep it that way. For a little longer at least. 

_ I’m gonna need to get to Black Hat’s phone in his office though to properly do what I want.  _ You stick your head through the closed menacingly large double doors without a sound. Black Hat doesn’t even notice your small head peering in, as he continues to look at his computer screen and there is the sound of faint music that you couldn’t quite identify playing in the background. 

You stay there trying to devise a way to get him out of his office for a while. Black Hat types away not noticing. 

_ Hm, I could use the voice of one of his subordinates, but then they would get suspicious before I can even get to pranking people....Oh, maybe if I go make a mess somewhere els--  _

Your thoughts are interrupted by a low rumble, which you expect to be a growl from the big man of the manor, so as a reaction, you respond by sinking your head slowly out, eyes darting to Black Hat’s face, but  _ this _ was not what you were expecting. 

The raspy voice behind the desk was carrying a tune, or at least attempting to drag one along with a dark melody.  _ Black Hat is singing…?  _

You blink a bit and pucker your lips, befuddled by the odd adorableness of the situation. Still, Black Hat was oblivious to your presence as he typed and swayed a bit. Maybe you were just harder to spot since you were a ghost...or maybe he was that focused on the work and music. 

You back out of the office and stand up straight as you try to think of something to get Black Hat out of his office without enraging him too much to the point of him making a scene in the manor. 

_ I can’t just ask him to leave either...that would be foolish.  _ You lean against the door with a huff and defeated feeling.  _ Maybe just wait for him to come out...but that could be hours from now... _ You tap your foot and furrow your brows still determined to think of the right plan.

Quickly, without warning, the double doors clicked open, startling your calm figure. Your shoulders stiffen and your posture resembles that of a board. The tiny lumberjack in your head boomed: “timber!” as you plummeted towards the ground, falling through the door you had been leaning on. 

Eyes still wide and confused, you see Black Hat glaring down at your phantom form, half in the hall, half in his office. “What are you doing, y/n?” He flatly addressed you.

Laughing nervously, you shrug. “¿Que tal? Amo tu voz cantando. Usted es casi un Louis Armstrong natural!” [Sup? I love your singing voice. You are almost a natural Louis Armstrong!] You hope that lightens the denseness, but he continues to serve you the never ending deadpan stare. Why did you even suspect lightheartedness would work on him? 

Now was a good time to go and take your leave! You let yourself sink down in retreat. Your legs and lower body obey, but you notice your torso is caught above the floor of Black Hat’s office, stopping you from your quick planned retreat. “¿¡Que es esto?!” [What is this?!] 

Black Hat chuckles at your panic. “You are in my territory, idiot. I control your actions here.” He stepped back inside smiling devilishly at your squirming upper body, and pacing over to his desk to grab something.

You bang on the floor in irritation and your feet, which are on the ceiling of the room below are kicking wildly, though Black Hat cannot see. “¡ Déjame ir! recuerdas lo que sucedió la última vez...!” [Let me go! You remember what happened last time…!] 

He began pacing towards you as you angrily shouted out about your trapped self, repeating the words:  “¡ Déjame ir!” 

You hear the distinct click of a pen. You stopped your shouting and held your eyes on Black Hat’s unamused expression.  _ What is he going to do? What’s the pen for...oh no, he’s gonna jam it in my head or someth- _

“Yes, I remember what happened last time. I wasn’t going to go down the route. Not today.” He bent down where you were and drew a mustache on your face accompanied by an ‘x’ on your nose.  _ With the permanent sharpie pen. _

_...Did he just-  _

“You left this here.” He tossed the pen down at you. “I don’t appreciate you leaving behind your appliances, especially ones you use for foolish childish antics.” 

You blink and stay motionless. You thought he was going to do something insane and twisted to you. You figured he would just end you and your nuisances right there. 

You were unable to form logical sentences, your neurological functions failing you. How were you supposed to respond to this? Yeah, he lowkey-childishly drew on your face, but at least he gave the pen back? It wasn’t even  _ your pen- He was the type to take pens, but just give them back? Especially with this prime opportunity to end you there. _

“Just take it and get out!” Black Hat impatiently growled. “I don’t have time for your stuttering! Flug gives me enough of that already!”

Internal messages reading “Y/N.exe has encountered a shocking action and is not responding properly” began popping up all over your deconstructed mind. 

“ _ JUST LEAVE ALREADY! I NEED TO GET BREAKFAST!”  _ Black Hat roared.

Snapping back into your senses, you float up into Black Hat’s office entirely and pick the sharpie off the ground. “I-I...I n-need to use the door to leave since this is…” Blanking on the english term, you tap your finger against it, trying to indicate the word “solid.” 

“Whatever. Just go.” Black Hat pointed, opening the double doors and directing you away. 

You nod and hurriedly zip out and further down the hall, retreating to the shadows. You watch Black Hat leave his office, locking the door, and striding down the opposite end of the hall, proceeding to the kitchen. 

You seep out some air and grasp a firm hold on the pen...that you were holding in your hand and not in your head.  _ I can’t believe he didn’t destroy me… More than that, he gave this back? That was almost kind of him, but isn’t he unknowing to such emotions…? What the fuck happened?  _

_ Alright, alright, alright...calm down. Don’t think about it too much...  _ You think to yourself, and look at the picture on the wall...and through the reflection saw the doodles he made on your face. You furrowed your brows and tried to wipe it off. 

You wiped again.

Again.

_ Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?! _

It wasn’t coming off - not even smudging. How do you wipe your face as a ghost?!

You let  out a cry of frustration, and were unable to carry through with your annoying act you wanted to do for the first time because  _ now you had to figure out how to remove sharpie from your soul.  _

You weren’t sure, but you could swear you heard a faint evil raspy chuckle from a certain entity. The damn bastard. You could slug him right across the face right now- even if you might deserve this for as much a nuisance as you were... _ but that was just part of the job!  _ Plus, he had done so much worse to people!

“Y/n-” A voice came from behind you. 

_ “¿¡Qué!?” _ You roared a little, not trying to come off that strong, but you didn’t even realize how irritating this immature act by the “Lord of Evil” was.

The poor anxious doctor wasn’t expecting this and jumped up a good few feet in the air. Your tone stuck him near as much as Black Hat’s.

“¡Oh Flug! ¡Lo siento! No quería... ¿Qué?” [Oh Flug! I’m sorry! I didn’t want to...what?] One second he was shaking, but now he was trying to suppress laughter. 

_ How could I already forget… _

You sighed and covered your face, but it didn’t help that much, given most of you was transparent. If you could blush, you would. Wherever your body was, it probably was.

“S-sorry I just...wh-what happened to your face..?” Dr. Flug asked you, still vainly attempting to cover up the giggles. 

“Black Hat…” You murmured out. This seemed more like a Demencia thing of him to do… “¿Alguna idea de cómo eliminar garabatos de una cara? ¿Una cara fantasma?” [Any idea of how to remove doodles from a face? A ghost face?] You ask. If anyone knew here, asking Flug was your best bet.

Flug nodded, coughing the rest of the giggles out of him. “I have some ideas, no worries, but I came here because...I-I have something I want to show you…” You could see his nervous but proud smile from the creases on his bag.

_ That was interesting... _ Something for you to see? Maybe it was whatever was on those blueprints… “¿Para que yo lo vea?” [Something for me to see?] You pointed at yourself like you needed to verify this.

“Y-yep! Come on, it’s in the lab!” Flug exclaimed and turned around, waving to bring you over. “I uh, can also get you something for your face.” He added with a masked chuckle.

If the excitement didn’t have you already drifting over to follow him, you  _ definitely were now. _ You did not like this taste of your own medicine. 


	12. Hat Bot

Humming a familiar tune, you skipped through the air (if that was possible) all the way to the destination, following the doctor. You notice some of the eyes of the pictures on the wall had begun watching you, tracing and judging you as you paced oddly merrily, and still with the scribbles on your face. 

You weren’t too alarmed anymore. At first you thought it was your imagination, but after being here almost a week, you kinda figured this was the norm. Probably something involving Black Hat always watching. 

You imagined one of the pictures of Black Hat resembling a regal figure with a voice similar to Roz from Monsters Inc.  _ ‘I’m watching you, Wazowski. Always watching.’  _ You chuckled a little to yourself.

“W-what is it, y/n?” Flug asked, turning around as he was about to open the lab door. 

“Oh, uh...nada.” You shrugged, and pushed the random thought away.

Flug blinked a bit, but just let it get dismissed. “Alright, well, come on in!” He opened the door and stepped out of the way. Really, he was the only one who needed the door, but you weren’t going to float through the wall and dismiss his kind gesture.

You got in and looked around. Yep...this was the lab, just as you had seen it all before...but then you spotted something different- “...un robot?”

You could feel Flug’s excited energy radiating off of him. “Exactly! It’s one of our organization’s Hat Bots! Have you seen them?” 

You tilted your head a bit. You had been here a while, but you actually hadn’t seen any Hat Bot’s or Sentinels or whatever...sure,  _ everyone has seen them on the news,  _ but come to think of it, you hadn’t seen one in your entire time being here. 

“Los he visto en la televisión…” [I’ve seen them on television…] You said over to Flug, looking his way. “No he visto a ninguno de ellos mientras he estado aquí.” [I haven’t seen any of them while I have been here.]

“Yes, well…” The doctor hummed and mumbled a little, rubbing the back of his neck. “There was a defect in them shortly before you came...and the boss had a bit of a tantrum too...you can put two and two together.”

_ Fair enough.  _ You could see where that was leading so you nodded.

“But that’s not the point here!” The hyper scientist ran past you and over to the table with the small Hat Bot. “I took the scrap from some of the other ones and put them together for the exterior, but the  _ interior is different!  _ I completely reworked the programming so that it is fit as a host!”

You didn’t know too much about robots and programming, but with that short and simplified explanation,  _ something clicked.  _ “¿Puedo poseerlo?” [I can possess it?] You asked.

Flug nodded quickly. “Yes! I made it for the purpose of you to possess it! I’ve been working on this since you got here- I-I’ve just always wanted to try something like this!” He paused, realizing how excited he was getting. “N-not to nerd or anything, but...could you help me test it out?” 

_ So this is what the blueprints were… _

He poured his heart and soul into this, and that was clear. It was actually kind of sweet...he obviously had you in mind when he made this too. Whether it was for his own scientific benefit or because he thought it would benefit  _ you, _ you weren’t sure...though, considering the people he lived around it was probably the first if not both.

“¡Gracias, Flug! ¡Es genial!” [Thank you, Flug! It’s great!] You exclaimed as you drifted over slowly to his side and the little robot’s. “Uh...¿Cómo puedo entrar?” [Uh...How do I get in?] Your ghostly head tilted to the side.

“Well, I uh...I assumed you could just get in like...you know how you did that thing with Demencia?” 

Oh boy did you remember...you’d rather forget. The imagery of being tangled to the crazy resident lizard as the ass-hat of the manor laughed was a humiliation that would be scarred in your mind. You nodded your head so not to get lost in that memory and to move on in the present.

“Okay, so, if you just do something like that, then it should work! Float into the Hat Bot and then stay still and solidify yourself while you are inside...I think that should work…” Flug hummed. “I wish I could explain it better to you, but, well, I’m not too sure h-how to explain it to a ghost since I’ve never really done it myself…”

You waved your hand to show that it was okay. “¡Lo intentaré!” [I’ll give it a try!] You casually smiled and went over to the Hat Bot shell. 

You took a deep breath, even if it wasn’t needed and slipped your foot in first, almost like testing the water in a pool.  _ Well it worked... _ so now you eased yourself down, steadily, reaching your other leg, and your arms...You wondered if your form was going to be sticking out from the smaller bot - you were bigger than it after all, and wouldn’t it look odd if you’re back end was sticking out..? 

It was a bizarre feeling, but you could feel yourself...shrink down to size? That was the best way to explain it- somehow as you were getting in, your whole body managed to get through...maybe this was just ghost physics or something. 

You blinked and in the next moment, you finished and looked up at Flug from where you were in the Hat Bot’s position on the table. Everything was in a whole new perspective. “Did it work?” You asked but then jumped-  _ Who’s voice was that!? _

Flug chuckled a little and clapped. “Yes! It works!” He looked ready to jump to a victory dance. “I added a translator so that you can speak to practically anyone and in any language! Of course, your default is going to be what you believe they understand and how you wish to speak to whatever person!” 

_ Holy shit, that was crazy advanced…!  _ “So it's linked with my mind or something?” You asked and almost jumped again - you would need to get used to the little robot voice. It wasn’t anything like your true voice, given the mechanical edge to it, but at the same time, it was super impressive what a couple days and ambition got this scientist to do! It was admirable actually...you wished you had half that motivation. 

“Yeah, pretty much!” Flug nodded. “It can’t  _ truly _ link to your mind since in reality it’s just a shell, but the idea was that when the ghost possesses it, the Hat Bot will do whatever the ghost is wanting it to do! With limits of course...it is only a body, more sturdy than a human’s body, but this means that it can receive damage, and in this form, it’s much easier to pick you up.” Flug explained flawlessly like a presentation. He had to be used to doing this sort of thing.

“This is really neat.” You tried to say with more exclamation and excitement, but the vocals didn’t quite reach where you wanted. 

“It may take some getting used to. I used a whole spectrum of voice with emotions, but some of that needs some time to process…” he said rubbing the back of his neck, because he hoped you were excited and not just saying that flatly. 

“Oh, okay, that explains a lot.” You followed up. “It is really cool of you to do for me…” 

Dr. Flug looked like another idea slapped him in the face and he jumped, making you scoot back a little, by the one wheel that held you up. It felt a little weird rolling, but it simulated the same feeling of going back, and the support that held you up was sturdy enough...naturally; the greatest scientist had worked on the exterior afterall. 

“You just reminded me…!” He raised his finger and then turned it into a fist, putting it into his other hand to capture and hold the idea before he forgot. “The Hat Bot is also designed as an exterior to hold you semi-permanently!” 

He couldn’t see your expression as well in this robot form, but you were looking a little concerned and the glowing orbs on the bot stayed, staring unblinkingly. So did this mean you were trapped in this too now and couldn’t get out???  _ Semi-permanent how???  _

“It means that as long as you are in the Hat Bot, it acts as a shell for you to stay in and you are tied to it! You can leave the manor with this body!” The creases on his bag indicated a smile. 

_ Leave the manor… _

And it clicked-

_ I could leave the manor with this Hat Bot body, find where my body is, and get back into it!  _

“Of course, you can’t leave the Hat Bot shell while you aren’t in the manor for long. I would say you can only leave for...only 30 seconds.”

And there goes your plan... 

“I’m not sure what would happen to you if you were outside the limitations of the Hat Bot for any longer, but I theorize your soul would start dissipating since you can’t go out the limits of the manor.” Flug shrugged. “But...I just wanted you to have the ability to get out a little...I know that even though this is a big place, being in here with some of the other...ah...r-residents can be a lot, especially if you physically  _ can’t _ get out. Plus, if you let me, I’ve been wanting to do this project as a personal side thing, but I never had any volunteers; I-I just want to record some things about it while you’re in it.”

_ If I let him? He just made me the coolest thing I’ve gotten since coming here! _ Of course you would act as a volunteer for his project! It would let you go outside - you hadn’t felt the sun in so long...or the beams from the moon and soft glow of the stars. You hadn’t been able to feel much of anything...unless it was pain that could be translated to your actual body...wherever it was.

“Of course you can record some things!” And there was the explanation: you were adjusting pretty well in this body. “You made this for me afterall, and it’s quite impressive to say the least.”

“Maybe while you are in that Hat Bot, you could find leads as to where your body is. I would have thought they would have mentioned something on the news by now, but...they probably haven’t released it yet if you’re in a different location and they are working on you.” Flug continued. “If we can find your body...maybe we can get you back in it.” 

“You are willing to help me find my body..?” You asked with your metallic voice, that didn’t touch nearly as emotional as you felt. You tried not to get  _ too emotional _ but...to hear the words that someone here was actually willing to support you in your cause to find what you wanted to hit differently.

The doctor nodded. “Yes, well...yeah. I-I mean...thinking about what could happen…” He mumbled and didn’t really finish what he was thinking or  _ why _ he really wanted to help you. He was holding something back, but you were to caught up in words and excitement in the moment that you didn’t think about it too much. 

“I have to test this out!” You exclaimed, feeling a smile on your face, that was likely on the Hat Bot too...if it could show. You assumed it did. 

“W-wait!” Dr. Flug said trying to reach you, but you hopped off the table you were on and landed on the ground.  _ It really did feel like having les again! Or, well, leg...and you were much shorter- _

“Y-you having tested out your functions..!” Flug called out, but then he let that trail as you were testing it right then and there. Ability to get around, check. Ability to land with balance, check. Functioning optics, check. Expression and vocal match, check…

You were a perfectly functioning Hat Bot on the outside. Not one would probably be able to tell the difference between you and a regular Hat Bot. Except that he gave you different plate alignment on the back since the shell didn’t have the same components inside and a slightly different styled hat. You had a boater hat, which didn’t quite match the other Hat Bots...once he got to reconstructing the rest of them.

“How do I test out my functions then?” You asked Dr. Flug who seemed caught up in thoughts.You didn’t want to be rude and just dart out, but with this body, you could practically hear the outside air calling your name. 

“O-oh,uh...nevermind.” he said with a small chuckle and placed a hand on his neck. “You go ahead and just go outside for a bit! I can tell you really want to.” Flug gave you the ‘okay’ and final metaphorical nudge to send you sailing out the open lab door. 

Flug watched you go and let out a small content sigh. “At least y/n’s happy enough…” He looked down in thought...surely, you wouldn’t turn out like past poltergeists anytime soon. It was bound to happen, sadly, and all he could do is put a bandage over it and keep wrapping it until the eventual consequence bled through…

_ At least he can give you this until then… _

…

“Oh shoot, the marker is still on y/n’s face…” He murmured, realizing he never helped you actually take that off. 

At least it wouldn’t show on the exterior.


	13. Fuera de Control

The sun was shining, grass was green, birds flew overhead singing their songs of brilliance…! Well, that’s what you imagined from the overcast, dead lawn, and...you were pretty sure those birds were buzzards waiting for something to drop dead. 

Regardless, being outside after so long of being in that particularly dense with “evil” atmosphere was actually pretty refreshing. Even if there were hardly any beams peeking past the clouds, you could still  _ feel it, and that was incredible! _

_ Flug had to have made this thing with sensory intelligence or stimulation of some sort...that would explain why they were so good at detecting things and staying alive when I’ve seen them out and around on television. _

Dr. Flug was a highly intelligent scientist, so being able to come up with some sort of sensory stimulus in a robot should be no difficult task for him. It wasn’t the real feeling of sun-on-skin, but it was enough to tell your mind ‘this is sun, and it is on your artificial skin.’

And at the moment, since this was all temporary, it’s what you needed.

You looked around at the quaint neighborhood. You couldn’t imagine the people that lived inside...or maybe you didn’t want to. To live this close to the notorious Black Hat Manor, they were probably fairly notorious themselves...or maybe just completely ignorant. You knew across town was where White Hat Manor sat, but still, it was across town and living this close to that monster was practically like dancing with the devil. 

Your thoughts were interrupted by the newspaper landing halfway up the walk. You actually jumped a little, some surprise shown through the optics on the Hat Bot exterior.  _ A newspaper? _

You rolled over on the smooth concrete and looked at it.    
_ Don’t tell me Black Hat actually still reads the paper… _ You thought as you tilted your head.  __

Who even  _ reads this?  _ You thought if anything people just used this for firefuel or just threw it right away...Black Hat would probably kill whatever person came around and threw that calling it ‘liter in his yard.’

Oh, but this paper wasn’t trash-    
In big,bold words at the top was: **‘Black Hat Returns!’** The subtitle below stating: _ ‘Suspected Suspended Animation Ray created and in the hands of the world’s most notorious super villain!’  _ You hummed, picking up the ancient news communication platform and continued scanning over the report. You found your name embedded in a paragraph: 

_ ‘Y/n L/n is the first victim of their kind, being struck directly with the Suspended Animation Ray. Their body was recovered from the rumble of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with minor injuries, but in a coma like state. According to Dr. Zug Slys, head doctor of y/n’s case at the White Hat’s Research Unit and Laboratory (WHRL), “Y/n is alive at the moment, whether they will recover from this coma is entirely dependent upon the research we scavenge from our search parties. For now, I cannot provide a definite answer.” The family and friends of l/n pray for their life and recovery.  _

_ ‘“Our researchers and my brilliant doctor are doing all they can to save their life, working on their case most of the days.” White Hat, head of the WHRL explains. “We have a whole unit on y/n’s case and several heros scoping over major cities and high populated areas every hour, nationwide. Black Hat will not succeed with such an attack again.”’  _

Based on your unprofessional, but solid knowledge on the media, they were definitely not releasing much on you. You were an odd case.  _ They had to be holding things back. It’s not like they would just release too many details on this to the public.  _

It took you a moment to really think about the words again but you blinked and re-read  _ ‘Dr. Zug Slys, head doctor of y/n’s case’  _ and a shiver went down your robot spine, reaching your little wheel that held you up. 

_ He’s the one who did all those experiments… _   
The images you saw in the book - the uncensored cruelty and gore - flashed into your mind and if you had a true throat, you might feel it swell up with a lump. Now you  _ really didn’t feel safe… _

But…! This  _ did _ tell you where your body was…! ...Halfway across town and in the residence of White Hat... _ Black Hat’s brother who you were sure he was not on good terms with… _

You made a popping noise and sighed. Great. How were you going to get over there? You didn’t know the answer would literally come right at your feet, but you were glad it did... _ but at the same time… _

You didn’t see how you were going to get help with this now. If you were at a regular hospital or something, maybe - just maybe - you could talk Flug into helping, but... _ White Hat’s Research Unit and Laboratory? With both White Hat and Dr. Zug?  _ That’s a tall order.

Now that you thought about it, they had counterparts for everyone at Black Hat’s manor...you wondered why that was-

But alas, things moved at a fast pace, and your thoughts were interrupted. “What the..?” The dark voice behind you murmured upon looking at your form. “I thought all of you were offline-  _ Get back inside you idiot!” _ Black Hat demanded of you. 

You squealed a little, but didn’t say anything;  _ He thought you were actually a Hat Bot!  _ You nodded and just rushed past Black Hat and got back inside the manor. You weren’t sure what he would do if he found out you were more than just a Hat Bot, so you could just play along for now…

Plus, you didn’t have to go anywhere  _ just yet. _ You knew where your body was and where you needed to go, and you would do so, but not right now. You couldn’t just up and leave with no explanation. 

Besides, thinking about White Hat reminded you: you still had those photos and letters to replace the files and paperwork in Black Hat’s office! It would be best to do it while he wasn’t inside and was...reading the paper. 

_ Heh, old man. _

You got over to the basement, and realized that in your time of being here, you never actually opened the door. Not once. Flug did when he came down that one time, but...if you’re honest, you didn’t even know  _ how  _ to open the door. So you did the next best thing - went back to the lab to get out of the Hat Bot, leave the shell with Flug for now, and then you could get down! 

“Oh, y/n! You’re back kinda early- H-how are you? Is there anything wrong with the Hat Bot?” Flug asked, as he noticed you in the hall; he was just heading out of there, you supposed.

“It works amazingly! Black Hat even thought I was an actual Hat Bot!” You said with a beam, that showed through on the little robot body too. “I just...realized that I can’t get into the basement and there is something I need to do.” You explained. 

“Oh, alright, well just drop it off in my lab and- OH!” The idea hit him in the head. “The stuff to remove those pen marks from your soul…!” 

From everything that happened, you had forgotten about it, and cringed when you heard ‘pen marks’ but you were  _ more than ready to get it off.  _ “Oh yes,  _ please.”  _

_ This should annoy him or maybe make him remember something...not sure, but this is important.  _ You wiped the stupid mustache and nose scribbles off your face with the help of Flug and were finally in the basement, with the first page flipped open, the flat letter still resting and looking aged and ignored. Has the letter been completely dejected...Did Black Hat ever actually reply? 

_Ugh. There my mind goes again...getting into deep little rampages…_   
You shrug. Your racing mind wasn’t going to answer the questions you had and most certainly would not get this book on Black Hat’s desk while he was likely still not in his office. 

_ Going up~!  _

You ascend past the top of the basement and float to the first floor. 5.0.5. was in the room, but hadn’t identified you yet, so you crept away to avoid giving him a heart attack. He was a gentle little carebear and you liked him. Once a decent distance down the long and dreary hallway, you pick up the pace. You didn’t like how the portraits normally followed you. Oddly though, the eyes of the paintings surrounding you  _ were not _ staring you down.  _ Hm...what’s that supposed to mean?  _

You thought about how Black Hat was “always watching everyone in the house” and assumed the portrait was how he did it, but what does it mean when he’s not watching? Was he asleep maybe? That would make things much easier on you...thought why would he sleep in the middle of the day?    
_ Probably reading the newspaper... _

You peek your head into his office. Lights were off and his head was down on his desk, like a child snoozing in class. And sure enough, the paper was below his face. Blue light from the computer screen reflected on his skin, almost making him look ethereal. He seemed calm and tranquil, no scowl on his face whatsoever. He looked like a different person almost. You slipped in completely, eyes not leaving the slumbering figure. 

_ He seems so...innocent. For an evil tyrannical, planet destroying, despicably wicked, horribly twisted and ugly eldritch. I guess he was working all last night or something to be this tired... _

You advance towards the desk with some caution. Even if he was asleep, you worried he might wake and do some freaky horror shit like when the dead person opens their eyes and tries to rip your soul in two. You didn’t step too close to Black Hat; you drifted just enough to reach your arms out and lightly place the book down. Gradually, you let go of your grip and slowly let your hands fall to the side. Black Hat didn’t even flinch. You sigh in relief and smile successfully.  _ Easy~! _

You would have tampered with some files too, but honestly, you were in the lion’s cage and didn’t want to poke around  _ too much _ , no matter how peaceful the beast was in the moment.

You turn around and prepare to sink down into the ground. You had done your nuisance act - even if it was small and kinda underwhelming - for the day, so it was time you took your leave to your private quarters. Then maybe you could move around a bit outside in your Hat Bot! 

But you reached a problem. 

You weren’t sinking down. 

You gulp as you stand on the solid ground below. The only time you couldn’t leave was when Black Hat was conscious and holding you inside his office. And you had  _ just _ cleaned those doodles off your face... You stood a bit paralyzed and stiff, knowing without any words said, you were caught. You nervously let out a squeak intended to be a small laugh. 

“Jajajaja...Me tienes…!” [Hahahaha...you got me…!] You playfully made small jazz hands, still not daring to turn around.

“I thought you wouldn’t try doing something like this today...I suppose I was wrong.” Black Hat’s voice behind you said in a grump. He almost seemed disappointed about something. 

You decided it was safe to face him without being attacked by violent words and venom claws. “¿Por qué piensas eso?” [Why would you think that?]

Black Hat groaned. “I don’t understand your annoying Spanish dialect, you fool.” He reminded you.

Immediately you realize you have been speaking spanish. No more luxury translator “Oh, ah...yes.” You nod. He rolled his eyes.  _ What? I didn’t say anything wrong….I just wanna know why you would think that. _

By the flat look on his face, Black Hat read your thoughts, but he held his answer on his tongue...whether he didn’t have a specific one or he didn’t want to share. He huffed and looked down at what you placed down on his desk previously. He looked a bit confused and opened the book carefully as though you were able to engineer a spring that would slam a pie in his face upon opening.  _ Hm, that’s not a bad idea actually… _

“...What?” Black Hat said bewildered down on the first open page. “What is this? A joke?” He glared at you. “This is pathetic.” 

You were about to say something, but you weren’t too sure what...or how to really say it.

Black Hat skeptically looked at the handwriting, hand tapping his chin. A dim light went off in his head. “Oh, yes. I remember this.” He picked it up with one hand, extended his arm to the side and dropped it in the wastebasket. “Meant to throw it out. Thanks.” 

You gaped and your hand reached for it, but suddenly a fire blazed from the inside and settled back down. “There. Now it is gone. I didn’t even know it was still down in the basement.” You continued to just stare in a bit of disbelief, though you should have seen it coming. Black Hat, smug with himself and pleased with the expression on your face, grinned widely. 

“B-but...why?” 

“Because. You know nothing of my relation with White Hat and it is best you keep it so. And they will never find you here.” Black Hat sneered, folding his arms together. “White Hat is…” He stopped himself from saying anymore and instead popped his neck joint. “Get out. Now.” 

You look down in some defeat peering into the trash can that disintegrated your not-so-grand plan. But before you turn away completely something caught your eye and you freeze with a glint of hope.

“Levantar!” [Lift up!] You order the object in the basket quickly. As soon as you casted out your hand and spoke your order, Black Hat, unsure of what you were doing, jumped up and sprung tentacles from his back, hissing. You ignored him. 

Out from the ashes of trash rose a single page of images from the album along with a note. You gasped.    
_ Did I...save them? _

Black Hat snarled and growled like a wild animal. “ _ What are you DOING!? PUT THAT BACK NOW!”  _ Clearly, he hadn’t predicted this move of yours and was above all else confused as to how that happened. He looked ready to pounce. 

You looked between him and the pictures. Then back again. This was the last of the photos that remained, and you hadn’t seen these photos yet. More forth...Black Hat hadn’t known you could do that...heck, you didn’t know you could do that either! You just saved some of the pictures from a sad fiery demise!

Part of you urged yourself to just put it down and get out of there…Why did it matter so much to you anyway?

...But there was that mysterious emotion in the back of your mind again. The one just like earlier: it stood out from every other, mysteriously just watching for it’s perfect moment to come forth and take over. 

Without thinking, you  _ smiled _ . 

Broadly.

Menacingly. 

As though you were  _ in control  _ now.

“You want this…?” There it was again...like the time before when you beat Black Hat:  _ you were speaking perfect english without trying…! _ “Come and take it from me~” You raised your hand higher above your head and the photos rose closer to the ceiling.

“Don’t play games with me, y/n... _ I will tear you to shreds _ .” Black Hat’s tentacles stiffened but his shoulders seemed to get less tense. 

You certainly didn’t want a repeat of last time, but for some reason, though you were in control...you felt  _ out of control.  _

“Well...why don’t you come over here and try that, hm? If you are  _ the great Black Hat _ you claim to be shouldn’t you have already gotten rid of me?  _ I think you're soft… _ ” 

_ HOLY HELL! THAT ISN’T ME!  _ You thought inside yourself.  _ What am I doing? This isn’t what I want!  _

You locked yourself in place from fear of what was going on. You smiled devilishly on the outside and your subconscious screamed in panic. 

Black Hat began to approach you. 

_ That’s it...I’m dead! I was asking to be killed! _

He growled, sharp fangs flashing in your sight.

You still wouldn’t move. Even though he was right there. You kept the same stupid grin on your face unwillingly as you cried on the inside for mercy... _ but there was none in the heart of this demonic beast-- _

**_SLAP!_ **

Black Hat’s back hand smacked into your cheek and left a defined sting. Your head spun to the side 90 degrees and the smile wiped clean off with it. Both your cheeks burned. You felt them burning. As though you were in your regular body again. Something was rolling down your cheek...Water? Blood? Both? Whatever it was, it wasn’t on your poltergeist body. It must be on your real body. Somewhere off in WHRL. Still connected to you, but so distant. 

“Get a hold of yourself, y/n. Don’t make me repeat myself.” Black Hat said inching close to your face and hissing with a snake like sound. 

Seconds blurred together and you felt yourself collapse to the floor, not passing through, but falling to the ground in a pile at Black Hat’s feet. 

You hurt. All over. But pain left you at the same time... Some darkness that wrapped around your being was hit away in the single blow so all that was left was the soreness...but no pain. 

The pictures from the slip of the page you saved floated down to the ground to join you in a heap and the note drifted slowly after. Quivering, you stretch out a shaking hand to grab it, but you fall limp; completely immobilized, but still conscious. 

Black Hat stepped on the letter and pinned it down. “ _ Learn to control your impulses, or they will control you. _ ” He swept the paper back across the floor, tearing it as he walked away and out of the office, leaving you in a heap. You didn’t see him go, but the door clicked behind him lightly.

_ … _

_ What is this? What was I doing? Why did Black Hat smack me instead of kill me?  _

_ Did he...help me…?  _

_ … _

_...What is happening to me? _


	14. "Id"

“Flug!” Black Hat charged into the lab, not bothering to knock. 

The poor scientist working on his latest project, and just about broke it from dropping the tool he was working with. “S-sir!” 

“The poltergeist is turning savage and is laying in my office. Attend to them now!” He roared, not wasting a moment of time. 

Flug bounced up a bit confused, but there was no time to interrogate Black Hat.  _ Y/n is going savage? What does that mean?? Why are they in Black Hat’s office? What’s going on?? _ Flug sped down the hallway with Black Hat sprinting closely behind him, much to his surprise. Black Hat seemed...concerned? 

Flug supposed Black Hat just wanted the poltergeist out of his office. 

“S-sir...how-” 

“Don’t question, Flug. Just get the bloody ghost out of my office and treat them accordingly!” He snapped angrily. 

Flug nodded and continued, letting the door fly open from the push of his hands. His eyes went right to the transparent figure crumpled on the ground. “Oh stars! What happened here…!” Flug scrambled to the ground next to you and noticed how easily it was to touch your hand; he wasn’t passing through, meaning you were either willing to be treated or not in control. It could be either or.

In your case, it was both. 

“I have numbed them temporarily. They cannot move. At this point I don’t know if y/n is in their right state of mind.” Black Hat informed the kneeling doctor. 

Flug noted that, still checking you for any damage. He had never given first aid to a ghost so he wasn’t sure exactly  _ what  _ he was expected to do. “I-I...uh, s-sir...what am I supposed to be, um...d-doing…?” He stuttered shakily. 

Black Hat gritted his teeth, glaring like it was obvious. “Help them, you idiot! Get them out of my office, into your lab, check them for sanity, and fix this!” He shouted like he cared, but Flug knew he just wanted them out. 

Flug nodded quickly and got to it. He picked you up, cradling you in his arms, and headed back to the office. You hardly weighed a thing, not having much weight in poltergeist form.

You rested in Flug’s arms, conscious but unable to communicate. Probably because Black Hat had numbed you. 

_ It’s all confusing...I’m not sure what is happening to me, but it seems Black Hat thinks I’m...changing? Not in my right state of mind?  _ _  
_ You pondered your peculiar behavior in your own mind. You thought of the dark thought that was vague and foreign in your mind. You hadn’t noticed it until you became a poltergeist. That _ had  _ to be the cause of this. Somehow... __

Flug placed you down carefully onto a cot in his lab, Black Hat still looking down at you behind him. 

“N-now sir...I kn-know you may not want to tell me, but I n-need to know what--” 

“Y/n got snoopy with my past and I didn’t appreciate it, so I burnt the album my brother gave me and somehow they were able to save a slip of paper from the book. After doing so, their manner completely shifted as though their poltergeist instincts began taking over their mind, so I slapped and numbed them to stop them from meaninglessly attacking like an idiot.” Black Hat blurred out everything without hesitation. 

Flug was a bit stunned at how Black Hat responded so hastily. “O-oh...ok.” Flug turned back over to you. There were straps on the side of the cot that he buckled around your figure and tightened. He silently moved across the floor leaving you be. 

_ What is he doing? Why is he holding me down?  _ It wasn’t like you could move anyway, but it raised general concern. Black Hat stood still with his arms behind his back. He was still glaring over between you and the doctor. 

Flug began walking back with a giant needle in one hand. 

_ Well, fuck that!  _ You didn’t like having substances injected into you.  _ Especially NOT _ with a giant ass needle like that. 

Despite your restraints from Black Hat, you were able to turn your head away and squeeze your eyes shut, but you didn’t run away. This was probably for the best...but you hated the thought of it...you wondered if you would even feel it in this form... 

Flug flinched back in sudden surprise. “I-I thought they were-” 

“They are. But that doesn’t mean they can’t move around slightly when their will to power increases.” Black Hat rolled his eyes. He assumed that would have been a clear explanation to the scientist. 

Flug tilted his head to the side and looked down to where you laid. “Oh...I take it you don’t like needles then, y/n?” Flug gently spoke to you. 

You heard him step closer though your eyes were shut. You would have been shaking more if you weren’t being contained. You didn’t bother nodding. Obviously he could tell. 

“I promise this won’t hurt. It’s just something to aid your sanity. I’ve never...injected this into a ghost though, so…” He looked over at the boss. “I can give them this, but I’ve never--” 

“ _ I heard you the first time! Just do it! _ ” Black Hat hissed impatiently. “We don’t have time to count all the risk and I can’t hold them steady forever! I have things to do.” 

Flug jolted and nodded quickly. He turned back over, his attention fully on you. “You may feel a little sting, ok?” He informed you in a low voice. His tone of voice wasn’t threatening, but his pitch seemed to change to one more sinister...as though he secretly did this more often. That did not make you feel any less tense. The only reason you didn’t seem worried was because Black Hat was numbing your muscles. 

You waited for the impact...but you never felt it come. 

“All done!” Flug said patting you on the back twice. 

Why hadn’t you felt it? 

“Good.” Black Hat said. Immediately you felt the pressure holding you down release you, and the stinging on your arm became noticeable. You sat up in alarm, despite the straps that were “holding you back.” 

_ So Black Hat numbed out the initial sting of the shot too…  _ You concluded.

Flug jumped, surprised by your quick resurrection. “Y/n! Are you alright?” 

You sat there looking down, not responding and trying to get a grip of your racing heart and quick, panicky breathes. 

“Why don’t you explain what they are going through, Dr. Flug?” Black Hat said with a tense sounding voice, growling at the scientist as though Flug was supposed to know to do that immediately. 

“Y-yes!” He almost tripped over his quaking legs. “W-well...y-y/n...um..” Flug gulped nervously and then pulled up a chair next to where you sat on the patient bed. “I-I believe what the boss wants me to explain is...poltergeist id….?” 

He turned back over to Black Hat to see if that was the correct category. Black Hat’s glare intensified with a small hiss of “hurry up.” Flug quickly looked away from the threatening figure knowing he was right on target. 

You remain still and seated, your breaths slowing down and beginning to level themselves. You felt the racing in your chest calm and the sting in your arm prominently, but slowly it all began to fade away until you didn’t feel anything. 

“There is something in all living beings called the id. It’s a psychological term for the pleasure principle or the first instinct in us all. Think about it like...” He paused to think of an example and you stared at him trying to follow along with the new word being introduced. His fingers snapped in thought. 

“Let’s say you have a really hard formula you need to solve for this very big invention that is due tomorrow. If you don’t complete the invention perfectly by tomorrow there will be consequences, but you still don’t understand the formula entirely and you can’t perfect it for some reason.” He looked up at you to be sure you were following along. You nodded slowly kind of understanding the situation. 

“Now, let’s say another scientist is working exceptionally hard on the exact same invention you are and he is ahead of you because he has the formula and all he has to do is apply it. If you lose to him, you are sunk and lose everything.” He used an exaggeration with hand motions and you continued to slowly nod. 

“But now let’s say he dropped his perfected formula out of his pocket or left it on a lab counter and he left, but is going to come back later...What do you want to do?” 

You blinked a few times as you realized he was specifically asking the question to you. You thought for a moment but he interrupted. 

“Don’t think of it. Just say.”

“ Tómalo.”  [Take it.] You blurred out. 

“Exactly. That is the instinct of the id. You act quickly without any moral thoughts or any input from your super ego.” 

“The super ego controls your morals or rather what you think is the right thing to do. Given the fact that the scientist I mentioned is under the same restrictions as you, he has worked longer hours and harder, and he has given his all to finding that formula and if he doesn’t have it he will suffer the consequences you have to suffer if you fail...what is the right thing to do?” 

“... Devolvérselo.” [...Give it back to him.]

Flug nodded as you gave the correct answer. His face looked grim for a moment, but that wiped away quickly.

“And lastly of the three, there is the ego; the decision maker. The ego is the balance between the superego and the id. It is the regulator and the final choice…Do you understand?” 

You nodded again. “Entiendo...pero al mismo tiempo no lo hago.” [I understand...but at the same time I do not.] You said a little hesitantly. It wasn’t that you didn’t understand his words as much as you weren’t sure how this was applying to you turning “savage” as previously stated by Black Hat.

You had almost completely forgotten that Black Hat was in the room. He had been so quiet this entire time, but he finally stepped back into the conversation. “How do you not understand it, you fool? As you remain in your poltergeist form your id is becoming stronger and acting as it pleases finding itself as the more powerful one. It is making you think you are the most powerful being in this household, but you know full well that is not true..!” He thundered with some irritation in his voice. 

You flinched back and Flug quickly began speaking again. 

“Your id is beginning to overpower your super ego as you remain in this form, suppressing all of your thoughts and eliminating the balance because of a superiority complex with these newly given powers...that is really the best way of explaining the concept of the poltergeist id. We aren’t saying you actually are self-centered and seeing any of us as inferior, but your id has recognized these immense powers that have been given with becoming a poltergeist...do you understand…?”

You gulped at sat down letting everything sink in, reflecting on the monster you were slowly being unwillingly morphed into by these abilities you used just to have a little “fun” being an annoyance. You had always done so because you had been oddly compelled to do so...this explained all of that. And the strange, foreign dark feeling in the back of your mind, that was ever present and took control now had a name. 

“Así que realmente estoy ... ¿perder el control de mis acciones ...?” [So I really am...losing control of my actions…?]

Flug didn’t have to say anything. He just looked down. This is what he didn’t want to tell you earlier, but he knew you would have to know at some point...

You weren’t too sure how to feel now...to think this entire time not only were you slowly losing the connection with your body and the ability to feel pain, but you were also losing control over your emotions and the divisions of your mind. Your cool personality that tried to stay optimistic began to shatter and you wore a face of despair.

At this rate...it was as though you were never going to return home and you would lose all of yourself. Of all of the people to be like this...why was it you that had to have that very bad day? Why did things always turn down such an unfortunate path? 

“...there is a way to stop this.” 

You looked up to the dark raspy voice speaking down to you. You snapped out of it piqued by the possible solution. 

Black Hat gave a wide toothy grin and offered out a hand. “Give me your soul, my dear, and I will be able to free you from this torment~” 

You sat there with a shocked expression and looked utterly dismayed at him and almost revolted. “No.”

There was a moment of silence and Flug sat in anxiety waiting for his boss to explode. 

Black Hat snarled and looked more ready to pounce than a cheetah that was chasing a gazelle that finally ran out of energy. “Fine.” He growled and promptly moved his hand back behind his back. 

“Suit yourself. The only other way to prevent the savage side from coming out is finding your body and  _ maybe _ getting back inside successfully, but that is less than likely. My offer is a generous one, so I suggest you think before you speak next time, you pathetic ghost.” He then gave one last sinister glance and vanished from the room. 

So that’s why he had stayed this whole time...he wanted to take your soul while you were down…

“Que cabron...puta…” [What the fuck...bitch..] You muttered once Black Hat was gone. 

“Y/n! Watch your words! Sometimes I can’t tell if you have a death wish or something..!” Flug said in small panic and worry Black Hat may have heard. 

You kicked your feet off of the edge of the cot. You needed more time to think...but you also knew you really needed to get to your body.  _ Fast.  _ You sighed and looked over to Flug, whose eyes were still on you. 

He was giving you some look of pity.

Flug looked to you with soft eyes as though he cared for the poltergeist and didn’t want to see you sad. You were one of his only friends...if you considered yourself his friend too. 

“Look...y/n-” 

“Tengo algo que decirte.” [I have something to tell you.]

You both spoke at the same time and looked at each other as if trying to figure out who to hear out, but Flug gestured for you. His condolences could wait. 

You nodded. “Sé dónde está mi cuerpo.” [I know where my body is.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to let everyone know, I have been trying to be consistent in the updating of this story (updating every other day), however mother nature is a cruel mistress and the area where I live in is going to be under flood and hurricane warning. The power will be out for a week at most, so I cannot guarantee that I will be able to update as quickly as I have been. I'm sorry about the inconvenience for all those enjoying the story, but once the power is back, the ball will be rolling and my fingers will be typing away! It shouldn't be long before I'm back!  
> Thank you to all of those who liked this so far! I promise you'll keep being given this entertaining content (When mother nature is done throwing her tantrum)!


	15. Andar Un Poco

“You do?!” Flug blinked, a little shocked. “H-how did you find out so fast? You didn’t go out to it, did you-” 

You shook your head and sighed. “No, lo leí en el periódico...El  _ periódico del jefe.”  _ [No, I read it in the newspaper...the  _ boss’ paper. _ ] He may not be your boss, but you didn’t want to say his name and have him materialize behind you. 

“Well where is it?” The scientist inquired. It was just as you thought, he would be so ready to help...until he learned the location. 

You winced. “...Manor de White Hat.” 

And there was the hanging silence. 

“Oh…” It was broken for a faction of a second and two seconds later was hit again by a sigh. “In the Research Unit and Laboratory too I take it..?”

You nodded your head and watched as Flug cringed back a little. You could practically see the beads of sweat popping through his paper bag, dampening it and making the edges droop. He was caught in the twist of wanting to help, but wanting to stay as far from there as he possibly could. He really didn’t want to see you slowly turn...he had made the Hat Bot shell with the means to slow this whole process, but maybe that wasn’t enough...how much time did you really have left before you turned as malevolent as the others and just needed to be erased  _ permanently… _

“W-well...I-I’m certain there is a way we could figure something out…” Flug said with the floating doubt shredding what little hope came out of that statement.

“¡Nunca ayudará con esto! Está tratando de quitarme el alma, así que ¿por qué me ayudaría a llegar a mis medios de escape?” [He will never help with this! He is trying to take my soul, so why would he help me get to my means of escape?] You said, getting up and drifting in your ghost form around the lab like you did when you paced as you were stressed.

Flug sighed and muttered something under his breath, but you couldn’t quite make it out. “Maybe we don’t need his help..” You heard him say. 

You looked over at him like he said some radical controversial statement. “Si trataras de hacer algo para ayudar sin su aprobación, ¿no te meterías en problemas?” [If you tried to do something to help without his approval, wouldn’t you get in trouble?]

Once again, the scientist mumbled and muttered under his bag. “...N-not if he doesn’t know…”

The two of you looked at one another. Why was it that Dr. Flug, the world’s “evilest” scientist was being so considerate to you? At this point, he was putting his job - maybe  _ life _ \- on the line to get you where you needed to be. “...¿Por qué haces esto?” [Why are you doing this?]

“D-doin what..?” 

“ _ Éste _ \- poniéndose en riesgo para mí. Sólo... un fantasma…” [ _ This-  _ putting yourself at risk for me....I’m just...a ghost…] You said slowly because...isn’t that all you should be to him?

Flug swallowed and shook his head. “No...you’re not just that. You’re y/n.” He said looking over to you. “...I know I have a reputation in the public to hold up, and I don’t ever want to look soft toward the people who should fear me, but I’ve just seen too many ghosts go...rogue. I-I can understand that you’re fulfilling what you need to and doing what it takes, but..to watch someone’s sanity deplete, after you’ve known the person for...even a few days..!” He rambled a little and stuttered at the end, trying to form the right words. “...I don’t want to watch another go. When you’re back in your body, you can forget anything and everything that happened here between any and all of us…! But...if not...your stay here is only temporary either way.”

He thought about this. Damn, had he thought about this...This is why he was how he was with you. He was nice enough, gave you the feeling of having a friend, but in the end knew that either way you were temporary so of course he could be more open...he didn’t think you would stay around. 

And it’s true,  _ you didn’t plan to stay around… _   
But if there was one thing you would never forget here, it would be Dr. Flug’s true nature. It was so much more pleasant than you would have ever imagined...in a bittersweet way too.

You had stayed silent so long; words didn’t want to escape you, so Flug spoke instead. “I-I don’t know if you get it, b-but-” 

“No... Lo entiendo perfectamente. Gracias...” [No...I completely understand. Thank you…] You spoke before he could finish and you smiled at him, really and truly grateful. “Gracias por todo lo que has hecho.” [Thank you for everything you have done.]

The doctor could feel the heat under his bag, and you even watched as his neck turned red from the thanks. “O-of course, y/n..! If I can help you in some way, th-then we can think up a plan..!” 

You nodded with some more optimism sprinkled into your spirit. 

“We don’t have to get right to it, unless you want to of course…” Dr Flug followed up, rubbing his warm neck. “I-I don’t know if you’re planning anything.” 

After that fiasco, no way were you wanting to do much of anything else for the day.  _ However…. _ “Honestamente, sólo necesito un poco de tiempo a solas, creo.” [Honestly, I just need a little alone time, I think.] You said as the corner of your eyes caught a glimpse of your Hat Bot shell. 

Flug nodded. “Y-yeah, I believe it...how about you just take some time to yourself? You could go outside for a stroll and when you get back, we could start thinking of something…” 

Your head bobbed in agreement as you slipped into your ‘new skin.’ “Or maybe tomorrow.” You were caught off guard by your mechanical English  _ again.  _ You still needed to get used to it. But you really didn’t want to think about anything dealing with the “poltergeist id” for a while or have anymore visions of some out of control, savage version of you floating to your mind.

“O-okay! Tomorrow then...w-whatever makes you more comfortable.” Flug agreed and held back on reminding you that this would need to get put in motion as soon as possible since, well, you already knew that.

You just needed some mental-health hours. Taking care of yourself, especially as a poltergeist is important. 

To say the least, you just decided “walking off” the events of the earlier hours in the day would be best. Literally. 

You strolled down the sidewalk, slowly leaving the manor behind you. You would go back there of course, but exploring wouldn’t hurt anything, and the backyard and gardens got dull after a while. Well, maybe dull wasn’t the right word so much as dark and dreary from all the dead plants and thriving hybrid looking monster abominations in pots. You just wanted to see some greener glass and flowers that you knew weren’t going to latch onto you. 

Even though you wanted to keep your mind away from it all, it kept wandering back…

Your body was somewhere that would be hard as hell to get to, Black Hat wanted your soul - which is all you are at the moment, and you were slowly being taken over by your urges and dark thoughts no matter how optimistic you tried to be. Sure, you had a lot more abilities now that you were separated from your tangible body, but why were you being so cocky in it? You didn’t  _ think you were... _ it just came out randomly. You didn’t mean to do what you did to Black Hat both of those times; maybe he just brought out the worst in everyone…

A small bump from the concrete jolted your attention, but thankfully your wheel didn’t stumble and make you fall. Flug gave this shell some swift reflexes...swift enough to register at the same time as your brain at least, and that was helpful.   
_ Flug has been nothing but helpful… _

You sighed, even the robo-vocals letting out a mimicked noise of one. You needed something to get your mind off of all of this, and the walk wasn’t helping nearly as much as you thought. Maybe that was because you weren’t really looking around- 

Surprisingly enough, you were right at the end of the neighborhood and could see bits of the town. The shops were nice and welcoming, decked in bright ads and effective means of attracting people. There were people walking around, talking to one another, carrying shopping bags, food, and little cars drove by. Everything was happy as could be…

You honestly weren’t expecting it all to look this...pleasant. It was a fair assumption too given Black Hat Manor was only a handful of minutes away. White Hat Manor was on the other side of town though...and maybe the city just had good management. 

Taking a closer look at some of the pass-byers, you could tell they were rather...different. Everyone here had a whole other look to them- a complete different look that your wildest thoughts couldn’t think up-    
There were people with dresses of different ages, people who looked more like hybrids like Demencia, people who were extremely tall, people who were extremely small, people with multiple limbs, eyes, mouths... 

_ What is this town…? _

Someone walked by you, acting normal - you fit right in with everyone here...but then the next person who caught a glance of you tapped someone’s shoulder and started whispering. 

Your optics blinked. Well, you  _ figured _ you fit right in, but what was with the whispering? The more you walked around, the more glances and whispers and points you got...the more people stepped away from you. 

Finally you creaked to a stop and looked around, confusing shown on your small frame. What was going on? Why was everyone treating you like a walking plague-    
You looked to the side in the window of one of the shops and saw your reflection. You were just in your small Hat Bot body, nothing was out of the normal-

_ Wait....I look like one of Black Hat’s goons. _

It clicked with you. No wonder people backed away; they were probably used to seeing Hat Bots up to no good or running specific errands for the Evil Overlord of the area. Why didn’t you actually think about that before you left..! (Well, you knew why; you had a lot else on your mind; who could blame you?) Maybe it would be best to head back…

You turned around and headed back, the people still looking wary and the ones behind you jumping back a little startled. You always wondered what it would be like to be feared and respected, but when it was like this, having Black Hat’s reputation being the main influence, it didn’t feel right. It was already a borderline-villainous thought to want to be feared, but you wanted it more for the respect and you wanted it  _ by your own name. _

_ Man, as if getting told I’m losing control wasn’t enough... _ You felt a bit bummed to say the least, but it couldn’t get any worse than your first very bad day right?

“Hey Hat Bot!”

_ Wrong. _

You turned around hesitantly to see who snapped your assumed name, unless maybe there was another Hat Bot in the area…? As unlikely as that was...but you could hope.

Nope, just as you believed, the voice was talking to you and it came from above you. “What do you think you’re doing here, villain scum? This is a protected area!” 

Two masked men floated in the air, bright colored matching uniforms and capes. You felt like you just stepped into a bad Sunday special hero comic and you were the unfortunate soul about to get sent up to the moon. 

Feeling at the mercy of the situation, you raised your hands. “Hold up! I can explain..!” You mustered as emotion as you could through the little metallic vocals, but before more could come out you were punted like a football, sailing in the air. 

_ The exterior..!  _ If it gets damaged like this, what will happen to you?    
In a burst of panic but quick reflexes, your tiny arms shot out, and snatched a branch of a nearby tree, used that to fling yourself over to the side of a building, rolled up and then flipped onto a cloth canopy before landing on your little wheel-leg.  _ Wow, these reflexes are amazing!  _

The two heroes scowled, and they definitely weren’t about to hear you out. You had seen enough corrupted heroes to know that the look in their eyes were dead set on crunching your metal plates and the bolts holding you together into fine sand. Judging on the amount of people watching and taking pictures to post on social media, no way were they about to let their image get a speck of soil by some “henchman.”

“Alright, little guy. If it’s a fight you want, then get ready to eat your slag.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hurricanes passed, and thankfully my area received minimal damage; I will be back at it, posting every other day until I have it complete! Thank you to everyone reading this still - I hope it's enjoyable and fun to read as much as it is to write! 
> 
> Just another small note: I am back in classes working toward my degree, and because of that some of the updates may be infrequent as far as times, but I will still try to post within a 48 hour range. If anything else comes up, I will post it in the end notes.
> 
> Thank you for your patience and understanding! Enjoy the story going forth! <3


	16. Desesperada

They wasted no time getting into action; moving around your sides, still staying feet apart in the air. They looked like they had this rehearsed as smooth and coordinated as it was. It was turning into a show more than a showdown for them - the cameras were rolling, phones recording, and you were the main target, as small a Hat Bot as you were. 

You never particularly disliked the hero and villain dynamic, but given your situation, you were really starting to dislike it. Not only did they not hear you out, but you didn’t want to do this! This is exactly what you were avoiding. 

You looked around them, nervously trying to play your options, but they were so limited that they were frozen in your mind. You still needed to act fast though, as the first hero breathed fire at you. _Fire breathing hero?!_ You panicked, but grabbed a nearby bench with surprising strength and threw it at the guy’s face. 

Everyone gasped - hell, _you gasped._ Where did you get that much strength?! Could this little body handle that much? It was a spur of the moment panic, but good lord, you were much stronger than you thought for your size. You didn’t feel cocky of course; you were too frantic with thoughts for that. 

You could see the dismay on the fire-breathing guy’s face, and then fury on the other. The other hero moved above you and before you could process what had happened, your little wheel supporting you was frozen to the ground. 

Fire and ice. Of course. 

The next second, a leg swung at you, kicking with force to lop your head off. You ducked, and the ice guy fell into the window of the store behind you. Now everyone was murmuring to one another like this was unusual. Hat Bot’s couldn’t be taken down _that easily_ could they? Sure, these guys were fast, but their methods were heavily flawed if all it took was a bench and a duck. 

As you were thinking that and trying to budge, the fiery one stood and exploded with flames. If it was for that classic intimidation, it worked. What can you say; you are not used to this stuff. “Alright punk, now you’re going down.”

_Yeah, how did that work out last time?_

He charged at you, but with his small little sentence break, you had enough time to think something out and you reached to grab a glass shard from the window his partner broke. Wow, no wonder villains and heroes in classic movies were able to easily escape during small talk and monologues: it gave you just enough time to think when your mind was running at a thousand miles per hour. 

As he got close enough, you murmured a little ‘sorry about this’ and stabbed him in the leg with the shard. Nothing against him (much), but if it was you or him, you had to defend yourself. He yelped, kicking back away in the air, his calf bleeding on his bright spandex suit as he was going to remove the shard. In a way, this was his own fault: in this day in age, you had to have more common sense than to use a fabric an enemy could stab through _that easily._ Maybe he would think about it like a lesson-

You almost forgot about the ice hero, but before you turned around to check, the feeling in your arms was gone and they crashed to the ground in blocks of ice. He was much more silent than the other dude and that must have made him better when it came to immobilizing the enemy...and now he was heading at you and your arms and little leg were frozen. 

But this guy wasn’t very agile; neither of them were. They _had to be_ rookie heroes. As he got closer your moved back your head and slammed it against his, full force. The fire guy, not expecting this blew fire your way, trying to avoid hitting his partner, but managed to get close enough to melt the ice on your wheel. 

Seeing the opportunity as it rose, you bursted free, jumping up, kicking the fire hero, and rolling over him, sending him to crash to the ground. 

No way were you about to make the same mistake others did - soon as you could, but booked it. Wheeled it away as fast as you could, which was pretty damn fast; you had to be going 70 mph off of the adrenaline rush.

You couldn’t feel it, but the rubber of the support wheel was burning and the smoke behind you was the proof of it. You were probably overexerting the little Hat Bot shell, but all that was going through your mind was: _GET OUTTA HERE!_

You practically tumbled into Black Hat Manor, the door swinging wide open as you got to it. If it hadn’t, you probably would have run it down. The change in the flooring threw you off and you slipped on the carpet, falling flat on your little robo face. You grunted, feeling yourself come off the adrenaline high...now you could tell just how hot the systems were in the shell. It didn’t hurt or anything, of course, but it was definitely warm. 

Your optics gazed up slowly until they could set on the figure who opened the door. _Figures._

“Oh my stars-! Y/n, are you okay?!” 

“Y/n?”

“AROO?”

Flug, Demencia, and 5.0.5 were all at the door, looking down at you, Demencia and 5.0.5 more perplexed by the doctor calling you by your name. 

Flug bent down to your side and started checking over the Hat Bot shell, accessing the damages. “What were you thinking?! That was streaming live in my lab!” 

“Is that ghosty?” Demencia asked, tilting her head, all of her hair falling to one side of her. “That looks like the Hat Bot on Instagrim!” She held out her phone and played the video of you, the little Hat Bot, throwing that bench in the fire hero’s face. Oof, that still made you cringe a bit, that was a brutal hit...but also neat- 

You couldn’t get distracted by the crazy lizard’s social media page though, as many pictures and videos of you wrecking those heroes were on it: Flug was still worried and questioning you. 5.0.5 had even gotten to your side and lightly helped you up, supporting you. 

“Oh I…” You shook your head to snap back. “I just wanted to walk around to clear my thoughts, but on my way back those two stopped me. I was trying to tell them I wasn’t going to do anything, but they didn’t listen! I had to protect myself!” Your mechanical vocals kept up with your emotions and in perfect English.

“Wow, y/n, your English is a lot better now! It’s a little scratchy and robotic sounding, but you can work on it.” Demencia exclaimed happily, being the peanut gallery of this conversation. 

Flug rolled his eyes from Demencia's comment, but kept his focus on you. “I-I see...but it’s all over the news, and sooner or later, Black Hat’s going to find out about this!” 

Suddenly, as the evil lord’s name had been spoken, all the pictures in the room and down all the hallways - probably even through the floors in the house - had eyes staring on all four of you. Flug gave a small startled squeal, realizing what he had done as the air became denser and the lights flickered upon arrival of the boss himself. 

“Find out _what?”_ He asked, but nothing needed to be said for him to start painting the picture in his mind. 

“L-lord Black Hat, sir..!” Dr Flug jolted up and turned around to face said monster-of-a-man.

Black Hat didn’t speak a word, just silently moved his single eye and all the eyes from the paintings to each and everyone one of you. Demencia waved at him and blew a kiss which was promptly ignored, 5.0.5 babbled and quivered, hugging on tightly to you as you were the closest thing to him, Flug gulped and nervously shook his knees, and you…

All you could do was stare back and swallow down whatever lump of bolts and screws were in your little throat.

“So. Doctor. I see you made y/n a vessel. I found it odd to only see one Hat Bot around this morning.” He spoke in a very unsettlingly calm rasp. 

“I-I-” 

_“Don’t speak.”_ He snapped and metaphorically slapped away the voice from Flug. 

“And _what exactly_ were you planning to do with this vessel, _y/n?”_ He asked, eyes all set on you. 

You felt like if you gave some wrong answer or even tried to utter anything you would get zapped to oblivion. “...I just...wanted some time outside.” You mumbled sheepishly, all your confidence had ran away from that glare. 

_“You just wanted some time outside?”_ He pressed on like that wasn’t all. 

You were indeed leaving out the fact that Flug and you _were_ going to plan something to get your body back, but you stayed silent. He didn’t need to know that...he would shut down that operation in a heartbeat. You didn’t really care what he thought about it, but you did care about Flug’s safety. 

Flug coughed, about to speak up and break the silence and maybe give the real plan away, but Demencia shoved her phone in Black Hat’s face. “Looky, Blacky! Y/n was kicking super hero asses!” She bounced as the videos from Instagrim danced across her screen. 

Oh no, _Demencia why…?_ _  
_Those weren’t even ‘super heroes’ - they were amateurs.

You were waiting for Black Hat to crush her phone or pick her up to yeet her away, but that never came. Yes, he slapped her hand away from his face, but even as she brought it further away...he was _actually watching._ Something was changing in his look...something you didn’t like at all. It made you a bit nauseous to the point you sank closer to 5.0.5. Ideas were brewing in his wicked mind; twisted thoughts...stirring vortexes of vicious nature that knew no mercy. Then there was the smile - that blood curdling, unsettling grin with all his sharp minty fangs flashing. 

“Isn’t it cool?!” Demencia squealed, all the red flags bouncing off her.

 _“Very interesting…”_ He smiled at you.  
 _At you._ Now you felt _really sick._

Even Flug looked terrified, looking between Black Hat and y/n, but once again before he could get a word out, Black Hat’s dominant voice thundered over his. 

“Flug, trap them like this and keep them in the lab.” 

“S-sir?”

 _“You heard me. Keep them like this._ ” He hissed.

Your eyes widened, but you found no voice to speak- _Keep you like this?_

“Y-yes sir, I-I heard you, b-but why?” The timid man asked, his back bent, but his mind uneasy and wanting answers, even if the boss looked ready to bite him.

Normally, Black Hat wouldn’t allow this sort of questioning of his authority to come his way, but there you were, flabbergasted as ever, and there he was, supercilious as ever. “Because I think this little project of yours is _genius._ It just needs a little tweaking - keep the soul hostage in the mechanical body and have them as slaves to our every command. They would be much more higher functioning than any robot we could imagine if we give them the reason of a once real, living being.” He clapped his hands together. “Your new assignment, Dr. Flug: manufacture the new Hat Bots and Sentinels as you did with our pester of a poltergeist here and we will use the contacted souls we have, putting them inside and keeping them as slaves.” 

If you had a jaw, it would have dropped, but instead, the Hat Bot optics widened to the max and the mouth stayed downward in a shocked frown.  
 _Flug can’t do that to me…! Flug won’t do that to me…!_  
You looked over to the doctor, who seemed just as silently shocked as you. 

“Of course,” Black Hat rose a finger, adding on. “If you give me our soul, y/n, we can always work something out: not treat you as a project slave and prevent your poltergeist id from consuming you.” His coy smile showed widely across his face, as he had you backed into a corner. 

You tried to jump out of the Hat Bot body right then and there and make a bolt for it - you didn’t know where you could go, but anywhere _away -_ but he must have predicted as much. You couldn’t budge from your spot as you wished. 

“...” 

What were you going to say? Flug couldn’t help you. Demencia wouldn’t help any. The only support you really felt right now, that was rapidly waning, was the grip from the big blue teddy bear. Black Hat was waiting, but unlike his usual impatient behavior, he was relishing the hanging dread in the air. 

“I’m not signing a contract.” You finally said. You had been and still would be firm on that.

Black Hat grinned, placing his hands behind his back. “Very well. Dr. Flug, take the slave to the lab.” 

Dr. Flug jumped as his name was said, but nodded and quickly scrambled over to you. 5.0.5 handed you over to your friend, who was under orders and hesitantly following. You looked at Flug, meeting his white pupils past the dark lenses...you could almost see more of his face through the bag, but you concentrated on his eyes, which spoke a grimm apology for themselves. He looked down and away from you, as he held you and slowly took the first step over to the lab. 

“Wait, you’re trapping y/n?” Demencia said, breaking the tense air. “Wait, why? Blacky wh-”

 _“Silence! I already explained this!”_ He snapped at her, making her shrink back, and slither over to the whimpering 5.0.5. 

Maybe you and Dr. Flug could think of something? Real quick, before he had to trap you- maybe there was another solution? You two could do _something-_

But that was squashed as you noticed Black Hat following behind Dr. Flug. There was no time to talk, no way to escape…

_This can’t be it...this can’t be…!_

You wanted to snap; use that same anger and mad power you did before- _you almost wished you killed Black Hat when you had the chance._ But it was too late now. He was winning. 

Everything spiraled downhill so quickly.  
Everything felt hopeless. 

Black Hat was watching over Dr. Flug during the whole process. It wasn’t long, but just because of what was being done, it was painful. Not physically...just internally. 

You knew Flug was regretting doing this...it was not what he planned. Not what he wanted. This was supposed to be a treat, not a prison. 

After some minutes of struggling - small nudges of hope that bursted in you that _just maybe_ you could get out of this - you gave up. You slumped in your cage; Black Hat had you and he was not letting go.

“I gave you every chance.” The monster said, cooly but with sadistic satisfaction, letting those words be the last thing spoken for a handful of time in the grey-soaked lab. He exited, you have nothing more to say…

You looked down at your hands. The suppression he used on you was lifted, but the maximum movement you had was within the robotic shell. It was so quiet, that all you heard for a minute was the humming of your tech; faint and easily could go unnoticed, like a particular pulsing organ in your chest...something you would never get to feel again. Your glowing optics flickered and focused downwards...as much as they could focus.

Two minutes went by...three…  
You could finally make out another sound: Flug putting away the tools which he used to seal your fate. He did so in silence - the bag zipping open, the tools brushing against one another with light clanks, zipping close, footsteps over to a cabinet, light creaks on the hinges, and the sound of it coming to rest on the shelf- There was no closing, however. The last sound you had anticipated never came, and since the small sounds was all that was on your mind, you looked over. 

Dr. Flug held the handles on the cabinet, not facing your way - he wouldn’t dare do that after doing something he had intended to be good but turned out for the worst.

“Flug…?”

“If I let you out now, Black Hat will kill me.” He murmured, but it was just enough so that you heard him.

You looked over to him, puzzled. _What was he thinking…_

“If I let you go now…” He slowly turned over to you, his white pupils hidden under the reflection of light. 

It was actually very ominous...you straighten up a little, out of your despair and into curiosity with a touch of unknowingness for what was about to happen. “Let me go now..? W- He would know it was done intentionally-” 

Flug raised his hand swiftly, and you jolted a little. “No he won’t.” The tilt of your head was all he needed to know to elaborate. “You are a poltergeist. It’s already been proven that you _can rival him._ I haven’t done many studies on the extent of poltergeist capabilities but I know someone who has and...and there is a lot you _can do.”_

He was alluding to the time you snapped before, and vicious as it was you remembered: _you were strong._ You felt down in the dumps utterly _hopeless_ right now, but Flug was right…

You didn’t realize it, but he walked right over to you, standing you up on the operation table. You were snapped back into the moment, out of your thoughts, and had to get your mind to balance..at least balance your mechanical weight. 

“Y/n, I want you to run.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made some last minute edits to the chapter at the very end - I was tweaking Chapter 17 and decided the bottom just worked better here. I will be posting the next chapter today after I get the time to revise and edit!


	17. Escapar

“Wait you want me to wha-?!”

_ “Shhh!” _ Flug hushed you quickly and spoke again, whisper-shouting. “Don’t say it back..! We don’t want  _ him _ listening in.”

You nodded and kept your robotic voice low; it was more like lowering your volume like you did on a computer. “You want me to run?”

“Yes. I want you to run. Fast as you can, far as you can-  _ get to White H- ...his manor.” _ Flug said, careful with using the name of the boss’ nemesis. “I can stage something as if you had an episode.” 

“But then you’ll be lying…” You replied quietly. Not that it was a “bad thing to do” in this situation; that wasn’t on your mind at all. “Can’t he tell when you lie?” 

There was a breathy wheeze from him as his bag puffed a little from it. Flug shook his head. “That’s not entirely true. People believe he is capable of more than he really is because his personality is so sharp and thundering over other evils...even I have lied to him before.” He patted your little arms carefully. “Just let me do this for you. I trapped you like this, but if you get out now and over there, I  _ know you can get out.” _

“How?” You questioned, not trying to be difficult: you were all for escape, but if the public went wild over one little Hat Bot, what on earth would White Hat do to you? More than that, the twisted doctor has your body...what if he  _ doesn’t _ give it back with his moral of his? 

“I’ll set up something here so that there seems there was a struggle. I’ll ask 5.0.5 to check the halls for you, and all I have to tell Demencia is to give Black Hat a mini performance.” He explained. “All you will need to do is get out the door. Ten or so minutes later I’ll call for Black Hat as if you just pounced out. That should give you enough time to just hightail it a little more than halfway over there…”

“What about directions?” You asked, following the plan up to there. You wanted to ask what a ‘mini performance’ from Demencia actually was, but at the same time, it probably was nothing more than going wild on her guitar. 

Flug reached into his pocket and pulled out an SD card. “I have the coordinates here.”    
Did he always have that in his pocket? 

“There are two sets of coordinates. One is halfway into town on the west side; that’s my friend’s house. The other is to the far north of the island; that's...your destination.”

“Why is your friend’s house on th-” 

“Because if you don’t think you can make it to the manor by the end of the day, then I want you to go there.” Flug got on top of the question, answering it before it could get out. “Her name is Penumbra. If you don’t think you can get to your destination, then go to her. She can help you; just tell her Dr. Flug sent you.” 

And here you thought Flug said he didn’t have many friends with his occupation and all- well...he did say he didn’t have  _ many _ so that implied he had  _ at least a few _ of course.

“If you can, get to your final destination. It doesn’t take long to get that far, but I also don’t know how fast your average is. It will be more than normal walking speed, but you shouldn’t over exert yourself...especially given what you did earlier today: your tire definitely took a lot of pressure.” Flug continued. “At most, you should travel about 40 mph. That will talk you over there in a decent amount of time if you’re consistent with it.”

You nodded, understanding now and trying to keep your mind on track: there was a plan. It was sudden, and thrown together, but this could work.  _ This had to work. _

Flug inserted the SD card in the slot on your metallic chest near the bowtie. You looked at his hand as he held it there, and as you looked over to him, something dawned on you-

This was goodbye.

You were packing up everything you did from the past several days, and hightailing away. You had so much planned that you didn’t get to carry through with- the faint idea of sticking all the furniture on the ceiling, the promise you made to Demencia to blast her music through every hall…

You didn’t think leaving the four-walls of your nightmares would be so hard...    
Well, it wasn’t. You were done and ready to bolt, but at the same time...you’ve gotten to know them close-up and better: learned about sides of them that no one else could ever dream of seeing, from a cult fanatic member to a quivering child. Not to seem mushy in your mind, but...some part of you might miss this: floating in the air, tumbling around...getting to see the ‘evil doctor.’ 

You placed a hand on Flug’s. “Flug...Thank you. For everything.” Your mechanical vocals whispered, and were overlaid with Spanish-  _ your voice.  _

Dr. Flug looked up and nodded his head. He was a little surprised to hear your true voice seeping through the mechanics, but there was also something...refreshing about it. He gave a soft smile, from what you could see on his limited visible expression. There was no ‘you’re welcome’ as he lowered his hand...he had come to accept that this is what had to happen. He knew it in the back of his mind from the beginning, and now that the time had come, he was ready to let go. 

“It was my pleasure, y/n.” Flug said over to you, with a genuine smile, holding no evil…   
He might be considered a bad man, but did that really make him  _ evil?  _

“Now let’s get to it.”

You waited in the lab. It was so still without Flug in it, of course, not  _ silent. _ You found some noises to focus on, if only to keep your mind from travelling to it’s anxious state. 

This was really going to determine your fate in some ways. It wasn’t the tight-timed plan that you had hoped to plan with Flug, but it was something...you steered your mind away from what Black Hat would do to you if he caught you.  _ Or if he caught wind of any of them helping… _

You shook your head- Nope, no,  _ no. _ That is not what you needed to think of.    
But it was the only thing trying to surface in your mind. 

You sighed, your vocals humming with it. The waiting game was a hard game to play when things were as tense as they are now. 

The door opened up, the doctor’s head peeking in. “Alright! Everything is in place, y/n-” He said, looking like he rushed over from the other rooms. “We got to make this hasty. You have everything-?” 

He didn’t realize how dumb a question that was until it came out his mouth so he just shook his head and batted it away. “I mean, you’re collected? Good?” 

You nodded, shakily, but put on a confident look...as confident a look as you could with a robotic face. “I’m ready.” 

You were about to jump off the table, but instead, Flug picked you up from your spot and held onto you...He held it a moment longer than he should: it was a hug. First and likely last. You didn’t have enough time to register that until he placed you down right outside the entrance. 

“Go on- 5.0.5 is sweeping the halls and Demencia is likely all over Black Hat.” As he finished the sentence there was the sound of loud guitar strings with a bass that rattled some of the beakers.

Yep, Demencia was definitely performing. 

You looked back at Flug, previously already giving the ‘thanks’ and ‘farewells’...what more could you say?    
“Thank you.” You said one last time and then rushed out and didn’t look back for the sake of “staying strong.”

This was the part that had you most anxious: get out without being caught, move hastily enough, and then move far enough so that Black Hat couldn’t catch you when he realized “his robot slave” was gone. You could not express your gratitude for the help that Flug, 5.0.5, and Demencia (even if she didn’t know she was helping) offered, but in the end, this was all relying on your ability to book it. You couldn’t make this in vain for them. 

As you turned the corner you heard the sound of something breaking and Black Hat’s annoyed shouting. This was peak time to get out. 

When Flug said 5.0.5 was sweeping the halls, you had processed that as he was checking them over, but no, you realized he was literally _sweeping the halls_ _with a broom._ You almost didn’t process him and ran into the cyan bear, but you were able to stop as you saw with your quick brake reflexes. He had on a cute little maid outfit and tilted his head as he saw you. 

The bear knew the plan though; Flug must have gone over it with him. 5.0.5 looked at you and then frantically around the hall to see if any of the pictures had their eyes on the two of you. He was even carrying a feather duster, ready to block the vision of the eyes with the cleaning appliance. 

When he saw you weren’t being watched he ran over to the front door and swung it open for you. “Aroo…!” He waved you over, his voice even lowered. 

You didn’t waste a second, running over to the door, zipping out. You gave the sweet bear a bright smile, and hoped he saw it. If you had the time, you would thank him, but the minutes were not slowing.

Just like that, you zoomed-   
Off the porch, down the path, out the gates...you got some stares going down the street, some people already snapping pictures of you like you were a notorious celebrity. Just as you turned the corner to the sidewalk, the entire manor looked to jump from its foundations, shaking with thundering notes from what sounded like...and organ?    
Now you were curious, but oh well-

You needed to drop your speed- you weren’t too sure how fast you were going, but if you were already near the town as you were before, then that was a sure enough sign that you should slow before you overexert yourself. 

You strolled down, casually enough. People gave you space, and thankfully no one was doing anything that would get in your way - if anything, through fear and misunderstanding they wanted to get _out of your way._   
_Alright...I just need to find one of the two locations...I can make it to White Hat manor..._ You thought to yourself. You would rather just get to White Hat’s place and try not to loop Flug’s friend into this...Of course, Flug never showed you how to activate or use the coordinates in that SD card. 

You kept moving, heading north, but looked down at the little port that he had placed it in. “There has to be some way to get them to work…” You mumbled to yourself. This was something you probably should have asked beforehand. Maybe it was automatic? 

You waited for something like a computer notification to interrupt your optics- just  _ something to happen. _ You knew you wanted to go to White Hat manor, but what good would that do you if you didn’t know  _ how?  _ ..Maybe you could ask someone? 

Maybe not.    
No, probably not. 

You kept rolling, but you didn’t go any slower than maybe...35 mph? Once again, you weren’t sure how to tell your speed, but it was a fair enough pace. You estimated it based on the cars that would drive by and the two or three speed limit signs you spotted. Your recommended maximum was 40 or so like Dr. Flug had said…

You were already wondering how things were over there. Especially with that last note you left on.  _ Heh, last note. _

As you continued, you found that your Hat Bot shell was moving with confidence; it was only your mind that was uncertain about where you were going. You  _ could _ stop, but you weren’t making any wrong turns, even if you wanted to; it was almost like cruising on a ride. Maybe the coordinates just got into motion as you wished to go wherever? There was still a lot about this little body you didn’t know about. 

And much you probably wouldn’t learn, hopefully. This was only temporary afterall. Now that you were out of Black Hat’s manor you didn’t want to go back - just keep moving forward. 

But then you were stopped, as you bumped into something.

You fell back, your optics flickering as you got up. You actually  _ were _ paying attention to what was in front of you; whoever this was, came out of nowhere and intentionally got in your way. 

_ Wait...that can’t be- _ _   
_ “Dr. Flug?” 

Oh no...the man may have worn a bag on his face and goggles, but by the way he stood, the choice of fashion, and oddly more menacing demeanor,  _ this was not Flug.  _

The person let out a scoff and pointed down a ray at you.    
“You wish I was.” 


	18. Seguridad (tu pensó)

There you were; not even an hour in and about to get roasted to slag for the second time in public today. People really didn’t seem to like these little Hat Bots. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey! NO!” You shouted, holding your arms out in front of you. “I’m trying to get places, and I _do not_ want another fight today!” 

The bagged man lowered the ray a little, if anything out of confusion. This was not how Hat Bots talked...Hat Bots only had limited vocals and not a very wide range of emotions. You were something else…  
 _And one of Flug’s._

“Is that so?” He hummed, arms folding. “Why is it that you’re headed in the opposite direction of Black Hat manor in such a hurry, henchbot?” 

You lowered your arms and looked at the man; you wanted to snap at him - first off, you were not a henchman. Secondly, you took a moment to really look at the bagged figure. There weren’t too many individuals who wore bags over their heads, but now that you didn’t have a ray pointed to kill on you and you could look him over, you’re brain snapped to who this was-   
_Dr. Zug._

Should you be relieved or worried?   
All you could think of in the back of your mind was all the awful experiments in that book you once opened...but with him right in front of you, he was an easier ticket into White Hat manor. 

Maybe you wanted too long before speaking because the doctor huffed and repeated the question with more agitation. “I said, _why are you in a hurry in the opposite direction?_ I want an answer or a hole through your head.” And once again, the ray was aimed at you.   
_Yeesh-_   
“You’re Dr. Zug, right?” You asked quickly, moving back some inches. 

“Still not answering the question…” 

“Stop treating me like a Hat Bot!” You huffed. There was only so much ‘intimidation’ this guy could lay on you before it became annoying. But seeing as you looked to be pissing him off with your words (and you were much smaller and _did look like a Hat Bot)_ , you needed to say more before he really launched. 

“Okay, _look_ , I know this is weird for me to explain, but my name is y/n l/n and I’m trapped in this shell. I ran away before Black Hat could make me his robotic slave, and he has a plan to use the souls contacted to him to make an army of enslaved spirits in Hat Bot and Sentinel shells.” You were rambling a little so you shook your head. “My point is, I’m y/n, and I need to get back to my body. I read in the paper that it’s in White Hat’s Research thing and you’re the head doctor working on my case so can you just _please_ get me to my body…?” 

With the explanation, the weapon was completely lowered, but Zug’s brow was completely raised. “You’re telling me _you are y/n?”_

Oh good, he heard of you; well he better have, but at least you didn’t need to explain that- “Yes, I am, that’s me...I got out so I could try to find White Hat’s manor and get the help I needed. I really just want to go home…” This had lasted long enough, and you were locked in a shell, looked like a Hat Bot, spoke like Siri, and were still craving a margarita.

The doctor hummed, looking down on you quizzically, but at least the ray was away. Unlike Dr. Zug, there was this piercing look he had that was near unreadable...you couldn’t tell what he was thinking or if he had any understanding of the emotions you have been through within the past week. With Flug, you could look in his eyes, and they said it all for you...but _this man…_

And there was the worry again of, ‘what if he is just going to use me like this and not let me return.’ You saw his dark side, and it was terrifying-

But before you could think too much about it he broke the look on you and sighed. “Unusual method of escape, but whatever works…” He almost sounded...disappointed? Like he had been planning something else, and you being able to escape ruined it. 

“You want to get into White Hat manor, huh?” Zug looked at you and spoke simply like one would do with a child...surely he could tell you _weren’t that._

You nodded, holding back the ‘ _duh_ ’ at the end. 

“Aren’t you the lucky one.” He said, maybe trying to sound ‘happy’ or ‘more excited’ but the flat tone in his voice wasn’t helping you feel that. “I was going to run a quick errand, but I suppose I can walk you back instead. Wouldn’t want the public to think I’m associating with my boss’ nemesis.”

You looked around the two of you, and thankfully, you were in a quieter spot, the occasional person passing by, not really caring what you or the scientist towering over you were up to. Of course, he was probably headed toward the heart of town where you had been trying to zip by, and that would definitely call attention. You didn’t mean to interrupt his errands, but, well, this situation you were in seemed a lot more important at the moment. 

“Come on, Hat B- y/n; this way.” Dr. Zug started ushering you in the direction of the manor. 

Well this wasn’t so bad...you were worried about him a little bit, but beside the monotone, cryptic expression there wasn’t that much wrong about him...on the outside. Perhaps if you didn’t mention anything or try to nose around in any of his experiments you would be fine. Your objective afterall was to get out of this shell and into your body; you didn’t need to nose around or be a nuisance to the people who could do just that for you…Plus, White Hat was the boss of Dr. Zug, if he did try to do anything, you could say something. 

But this all meant you were on the right track...finally leaving Black Hat, Dr. Flug, Demencia, and 5.0.5 behind. There were some aspects of each personality you were going to miss too; obviously you would miss Flug and 5.0.5...but even parts of Demencia. She was wild, rambunctious, and a little mislead...maybe if you could talk to her more or get to the roots of her obsession...just _maybe_ you could help her. If she was even accepting that. When you were stuck on her and got free, you realized that she really just needed more attention. 

Black Hat...no way were you missing _that._ He was cruel, evil, and vicious, just as everyone said in the news and even in the creepy bedtime horror stories and lullabies….   
But then that got you thinking...about the times he could have ended you right then and there...about the times you caught him snoozing and how soft his face seemed despite everything; even Flug said that the truth of his abilities was exaggerated and shrouded by lies in attempts to keep his reign of fear fruitful. It worked too...but _still._ Now that you have been exposed to little tips of the iceberg of truth- 

Your thoughts were cut as you turned a corner. You were lost in deep contemplation, but somehow your body knew just where to go still, and you stayed right behind Dr. Zug. Maybe this is just how the coordinates worked when they were input? 

“Did you hear a word I said?” Dr. Zug asked up suddenly. 

_Oh shit was he talking to you?_ “Ah…” 

He huffed and muttered something under his breath, but he was much too silent to hear. Why did you have a feeling he did that a lot for a lot of reasons? 

“I said your body is stable. You’re lucky you found me and didn’t get caught by any other heroes first.” His flat voice managed to reach your ears...or whatever you were hearing with. “I picked up your location a few days back and was about to report it to White Hat. We would have attacked the manor.” 

His slight disappointment that they didn’t get to did not slip past you. “Yes, well...enough is enough, and I needed to dart.” You explained the cancellation to his ‘fun attack fest.’ 

“And you had that much power…” He said almost mindlessly. 

You slowed your pace, a bit taken aback. “What do you mean…?” 

He glanced your way like it should be obvious. “You got out of there on your own. None of those delinquents would have the sense to help you.” 

_Zug didn’t know a thing about how they worked there…_   
You felt a lump in your metal throat; you wanted to defend them. After they did all of that work to help you get out and away from Black Hat...all you did was run. “Yeah…” You said quietly.

There wasn’t a specific tone you had, but the shell did have _some_ emotional intelligence. As Zug walked in front of you along the sidewalk, he picked up the little emotion. “Are you saying you had help getting out?” 

Even worse than throwing them under the bus, you couldn’t soil their reputation-! Even if they were villains. “No.” You said quickly, almost as an exclamation. “I got out on my own. No one was going to help me so I just...managed.”

“You must be swift, being in that Hat Bot.” He slowed, only to get on the same pace as you and walk alongside, his eyes not wavering from you so as to observe every slight emotion. You didn’t know it, but he was going to pick the truth out of you in his dexterous mind. 

“I was swifter as a poltergeist.” 

“I believe it.”

You looked up and noticed his gaze and...creepy interest in you, but you didn’t stop, because from the corner of your optics, you noticed the manor. The range of your periphery vision was so much more crisp with your Hat Bot shell, at least that was one benefit. “Ah, we are almost there.” 

“Indeed.”

The exterior was the opposite of Black Hat’s in _every way._ A maintained lawn, beautiful green and brightly decked landscape, and every tree at the corners of the fence had little bird feeders with beautiful little feathered sky beans gathered around to get their fill. “Wow…” You said with unfiltered awe. Your wildest, fluffiest parts of your mind couldn’t think up something this beautiful until it was right in front of you. 

Zug shook his head. “Wait until you see the interior….your eyes would bleed from the variety of palates.” The last part was so silently whispered that you didn’t even process it until after he opened the door and gave you room to walk in. “Keep it down. I don’t want them to think you’re one of _his_ Hat Bots.” He threw in some stress on the pronoun to avoid saying the name of Black Hat...perhaps it was like how White Hat’s name shouldn’t be said in Black Hat’s manor…

He was right though- the colors were _vivid._ It was like everything was freshly bought, and the diversity of time-styles were mixed so well, you didn’t think much about it: from the modern art above the Victorian styled furniture in one area, to the Gothic architectural entrance to the room with the fireplace that looked like it came out of something Salvador Dalí made. Somehow, there was a balanced, organized chaos to the structure that couldn’t even truly be called “chaos”...it was like extreme diversity meeting harmonized melody and becoming happily married and stable. 

The paintings down the hall Dr. Zug led you around were a combination of art pieces and photographs - some photographs colored, some black and white, but all from different ages. There were caped heroes in an academy, to big-time leaders of companies who were sponsors, people with disabilities, local heroes, super heroes, protestors paving way to revolutionary political and social changes...White Hat was in about every picture, beaming proudly from the acts and representations of what all was depicted - he was honored to display all of this. 

And none of the eyes followed you - _finally, someone who respects privacy._

All around, this was a beautiful place; a small candle-light of hope in the midst of the darkness and misfortune that had been thrown your way. Why were you even worried about coming here and having your body be here? White Hat looked so trusting and noble, just as he was said to be publicly. 

Oh right, because Dr. Zug has your body-  
You both got into his lab, easily enough and he shut the door behind you as you got in. Immediately, you could feel the difference in atmosphere. Just as Flug’s lab, everything had its place. Everything was also _very clean;_ and not in a settling way. Dr. Flug’s lab was clean and tidy, as a scientist’s main lab should be, but this was _unsettlingly clean._ It felt artificial and mechanical; so black and white and crisp with contrast to the point it didn’t feel welcoming at all. It felt like the kind of place he could do anything he wanted to _anyone he wanted_ ... _and you were in it now._

“So…” You said, turning around, breaking the silence. “Where is my body? When are you going to let White Hat know I’m here and alright?” 

There was no reply...just the click of locking the door. 

Your wheel rolled back, without you even thinking to do so...then there was a smile under his bag; seen just as you saw Flug’s, with the little crease to the side. His once flat-lifeless voice turned with more personality; _more sadism._

“You know y/n...you’re the first poltergeist I’ve gotten in my possession who’s unable to slip away from me…” Oh yeah, red flags were going left and right. With one more lock to place on the door, his full attention was now on you. “Your body’s connection to your spirit is still strong, and you can last so long outside of it. You are probably one of the most powerful beings right now, and you don’t even know how to harness all your capabilities; you have the power to wipe out both White and Black Hat’s reign at the tip of your fingers…” 

“But I don’t want to do that!” You exclaimed and backed away more after every step he took. 

Dr. Zug just kept advancing forward. “Of course you don’t. Your moral compass is in the way... _but I can fix that too; I could bend your will to make all your power mine...”_

“Get away from me…!” You snapped at him, not knowing what to really say or do. Everything was taking another dark turn, but this time you really didn’t have anyone to lean on for help. 

“Oh, don’t fret on it; I’m a _hero_ so I have _no evil intentions.”_ You never heard a more bold faced lie. 

He stopped stepping forward and his gloved hand slowly traced to a button that you hadn’t noticed until his hand was there. “I won’t do anything to you to cause you much discomfort.” He pressed the button and you felt your body float up. All too late you saw the caution tape on the floor that showed you were behind a line you really shouldn’t have backed up to. You were sent up and back, smacking against a cool metal surface, and unable to move, your shell being metal. _“Much that is.”_ You felt Zug’s concealed devilish grin.

 _He was mad...a literal mad scientist-_ _  
_ _And they rumor Flug as the wicked one…_

“I just have a few small tests I want to run, and you’ll be back in your body in no time.” Zug said, calmly. You saw his hand point over to the right corner of the lab, but you didn’t see your body. “I can make sure that you forget all about our little exchange; your mind will be at ease, and my reputation will remain untainted and with more ground-breaking data. Win-win.” 

You didn’t even want to speak; this day really did just keep going downhill. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there!   
> I know I am so close to wrapping this thing up, but I just wanted to let everyone know, the school load is already piling me under and drowning me with assignments. I have multiple things I need to get done, so I am going to give myself a week - just a week! - to get everything straightened out. I will post again next week, but I want to give myself time to pace myself with the story so it's not feeling cramped or rushed. Ideally, I would be able to update it every other day as anticipated, but for everything I have to do, I really just cannot do that. I am working on this story for fun and it is something that I enjoying doing, and that is how I want it to stay; I never want something like this to feel like an obligation because that is when my work ends up becoming too artificial, like I'm just pumping chapters out, and the fun-flow seems to be missing. 
> 
> Thank you for understanding and I will get this thing back on track by next week!


	19. La Busca

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” The enraged shouting rang through the manor and vibrated the eardrums of anyone in a mile radius.  _ “WHERE IS Y/N?!” _

Black Hat had just discovered your disappearance, a day later, and needless to say, he was a little bit more than peeved. “I-I…! I d-don’t know, sir…!” Flug stammered and shook, outwardly lying and did so very well. 

“I swear I saw y/n yesterday…! I did!” Demencia said, speaking the truth because if she  _ did know _ then she  _ would say.  _ Thus, why she wasn’t told. 

“Of course we saw them here yesterday-  _ They were here yesterday!”  _ Black Hat snapped at the lizard, irritated. The furious remark from Black Hat sent her up the wall to get some distance. “How could you be so idiotic, Flug!” He redirected the surging storm to Flug. 

Flug squeaked, an authentic one of course having the threat so close. “I-I’m not sure, I thought I locked the lab! They could have escaped using their abilities or something, I’m not s-sure! It’s all so vague!” 

He was a  _ master liar.  _ Black Hat couldn’t tell any different from the way he cowered. “None of you are letting y/n have their smug little victory!  _ Get out and look for them before I ring your necks and leave you to hang outside!” _

All three of them were more than eager to rush out of Black Hat’s double-doored office and dash five hallways over before catching their breath. To say that Black Hat was mad was an understatement. Not even Flug had expected him to be so enraged…

5.0.5 was still trying to hide, whimpering and babbling on the floor, face down. “H-hey, it’s alright, 5.0.5…” 

“Alright?” Demencia squeaked. “This isn’t alright! Blacky is mad and it’s your fault!” 

Well, Flug couldn’t deny that. It was what he wanted for y/n, but he had to go with the lie; he sighed and glared at the girl. “How was I supposed to predict they would escape? How was anyone!? And the boss is so much more upset about this than I would have imagined!” 

He pet 5.0.5, and the bear looked up sheepishly, more than anything not wanted to ruin the act his creator was putting up, for as good as it was. The poor little care-bear wasn’t so good at lies. 

Demencia huffed and took out her phone, probably going to post a vent message on her Instagrim story. In the meantime, Dr. Flug bent down to 5.0.5 and whispered, “Thanks for going with it, buddy...everything will be alright...we’ll go looking for a few hours, won’t be able to find them, and by that point everything will be okay…” 

5.0.5 raised his head up a little and gave a small smile as he sat up...of course his fear and worry were genuine from Black Hat’s little outburst. 

“What did you say, doc?” Demencia asked, tossing her phone away in some random direction...and she wondered why she was always losing it. 

“N-nothing!” Dr. Flug coughed and stood up. “We need to get looking! We don’t have all day!” He said and started heading for the door. 

Demencia tilted her head. “Wouldn’t it be easier to use your aircraft thingy that can scan where the active Hat Bots are?” She asked. 

Flug was honestly surprised that she even had a half-decent idea. In a regular situation, he might have commended her if he wasn’t already planning so himself. “Ah...no. Y/n’s different from the other Hat Bots, so we will have to scan from the ground.” 

“But can’t we take a ride? Why can’t we just riiiiiide?!” Demencia whined, making things so much more difficult. 

If there was one thing Flug got more annoyed over than someone using his paper bags for sandwiches, it was Demencia's whining. “Okay! Fine! We can use the aircraft, but the scanner won’t work!” 

“Okay!” Demencia beamed and started jumping toward where they kept their Hat-Aircraft. 

5.0.5 looked over to Dr. Flug and offered a small side hug. Flug sighed and shook his head, pressing a hand where his forehead was. “Let’s just get this over with…”

When you were thinking about the ways Dr. Zug was going to experiment with you, you really didn’t think this would be one thing to happen to you... 

“Hold still, hattie, I don’t want to smear your paint job…” There was a tired pastel girl holding onto you. You couldn’t really move because Dr. Zug had done something to your mechanics to keep you in place to prevent you from running, and as he worked he allowed this dopey chick to have at painting your villainous hat-bot exterior to something more...light and cute.

“I can’t move even if I wanted to…” You muttered, but your mechanical voice made it sound more crisp and clear. This wasn’t super bad, but...it was like getting your hair braided at a slumber party but you didn’t want it.

“If you could keep it down, that would be excellent.” Dr. Zug said in a very flat tone, not looking up from whatever he was working on now...you didn’t want to think what it was.

After he got you trapped last night, he had proceeded to interrogate you, but you knew he was going to do more...You had been going with this so far, you were sure he was going to do something wild to you today, but instead, when he got in the lab he let Clemencia start painting you..? Honestly, you weren’t too sure why...maybe it was to make you look like you belonged to them and you weren’t one of Black Hat’s henchbots...but why would that matter? You didn’t think Dr. Zug had any intention of just letting you roam happily around the manor. If you saw White Hat, you were going to tell him who you were and that Dr. Zug wasn’t letting you back in your own body-

“Aw, c’mon Zugbug, we aren’t even really talking that loooud…” Clem said, pausing with her painting and leaned a little back. You were certain you and her both were going to topple to the floor.

‘Zugbug’ turned over to her with an irritated glow in his eyes. Guess he wasn’t fond of the nicknames. “But  _ you are distracting me. _ I do not tolerate distractions in my lab, Clemencia.” He spoke with an edge, dangerously alluding to kicking her out in an unpleasant fashion.

Unlike you, Clemencia was used to this sort of behavior from Zug and just giggled and dismissed the entire thought of him doing anything. “What are you working on anyway..? Wouldn’t you rather do some arts and crafts with me?” She said as she stuck one of those sticky gems on the side of your mechanical frame. 

Maybe if you weren’t in a situation where you were worried about every word that escaped your lips- or rather,  _ speaker _ \- you would make a comment about not wanting to be treated like some elementary kids arts-and-crafts play-thing and more like someone with feelings and some dignity, even if in a little hat-bot body.

“I asked you to do arts-and-crafts, and no moment did I ask you to do so did I say I wanted to do so as well.” Dr. Zug said pinching where you assumed the bridge of his nose was, wrinkling his bag a little.

“What does that mean?” Clem asked. You flinched a little just waiting for the “good doctor” to explode on her incompetence. 

Thankfully that didn’t happen. Not as much as you figured at least. “It means ‘no’, Clemencia. No I am not going to join you in your crafts. I am working on a very important little test that I want to run on the hat-bot once you’ve finished with them.” 

You knew your heart would have sunk down if you had it in you. Clemencia didn’t know you were actually  _ you _ , and you really didn’t have the figurative or literal balls to say so in front of Dr. Zug. So Clem just laughed a dippy little laugh and tilted her head to the side and kept working on bedazzling you. And you hoped it would last as long as possible now…

Flug piloted the Hat-Aircraft and rode slowly over the town. The people avoided being under it, having no idea what they were doing, but not wanting to find out the hard way. Citizens jumped under canopies, ran into buildings, and some even just went behind other people or ran right back where they came from...as if any of that would save them if they  _ were  _ intending to do something malicious.

“I’m booooored…” Demencia huffed and rolled over. “Where is my phoooone…” 

“Maybe if you didn’t throw it, you would know where.” Flug said with an irritated edge. 

Demencia pouted and managed to slither right over to him. “When did I throw it? I never  _ threw it… _ ” 

Rather than correct her from what she did about thirty minutes ago now, he opted on focusing on what was in front of him. He made sure to not turn on the scanner specifically because he didn’t want you to be spotted...if all went according to plan, you were at White Hat’s manor now and all of this could be fixed.

“Why don’t we at least  _ try _ the scanner, Fluggy?” Demecia was still speaking with that whiny tone. “I mean, you’re the one who made it so it  _ should work.”  _

“We  _ are not _ turning on the scanner!” He snapped at her, having enough of her whines. “Look, just...let’s just not. They aren’t going to work, so we shouldn’t even-”

“You let y/n escape, didn’t you..?” She asked, narrowing her eyes and looking to the man with a quizzical glance.

5.0.5. looked with worry and made some blubbering noises. Dr. Flug turned his head over to 5.0.5. and shook it as if to say, ‘don’t blow cover, stay calm.’

“What are you talking about, Demencia?” Dr. Flug said, holding his lie steady. “You do realize Black Hat would  _ skin me _ if I dared to even have half the thought to  _ help that poltergeist..!” _

“But you were also friendly with themmm~” Demencia sang but then her mood shifted. “And...they were a nice ghosty. I miss them.”

Flug stared at Demencia, if anything, surprised she had enough thought to be honest...but still he shook his head. “Friendly or not, I wouldn’t let them go.” 

Demencia sighed and slumped a little. “Yeah...me neither. That’s why I miss them. So we need to find them…!” She said and slammed her fist down on the control panel, hitting the scanner button.

Flug jumped back, shocked by her outburst, but then more startled over her action. “Demencia-! What are you-”

Before he could finish his thought and shut the scanner off, it started picking up something, beeping loudly with a signal. He never thought he would see the day he cursed his own genius and quick-acting technology. It wasn’t exactly his invention's fault, but rather the ‘mastermind’ behind it.

“There! There look! Flug it’s working it’s- Hey, what’s that look for?” Demencia asked as Flug gave her the most frustrated grimace his paper bag expression could muster. 

“I told you, it wouldn’t be able to pick up where y/n is! That’s probably...probably a glitch or something-!” Flug snapped and tried to hide where the coordinates were. 

All in vain though. Demencia knew those coordinates anywhere.  _ “There’s a Hat Bot in White Hat’s Manor…!” _ She shrieked. “Black Hat is going to flip shit it if he figures  _ that  _ out!”

“It..it could be one of uh... _ his nemesis’ bots!” _ Flug reasoned. 

Once again, all in vain. Demencia looked at him confused and with a hint of disbelief. “...Your device can read enemy bots too? Then why is Black Hat’s emblem on it?” 

Was it just today or has Dementia's deduction skills always been this keen? 

“It’s...it’s…” Dr. Flug was so sharp witted about lies, but how was he supposed to cover this up? Even 5.0.5. was looking at him anxious to see how he would cover it. “It could be a misfired signal. We haven’t used this in a while since the Hat Bots got wrecked, remember?”

“It’s still something to tell Blackie.” She said and crossed her arms. “And I may just tell him you let y/n escape-” 

“I did not!” Flug snapped and huffed. “Alright, yes- we’re going to tell the boss, but you better let me explain the possible faults in the readings on this thing.” 

Demencia rolled her eyes. “Be my guest, but you’re gonna look suspiciousss~” She sang as she dragged out the ‘s’ at the end.

Well this wasn’t the best way this trip could have gone, but at least now they knew you made it to White Hat’s manor...and even if Black Hat wanted to do something, it would probably be too late. There was ample time for you to get out and get all of this fixed (or so he believed). But Flug could still stall a little more time for you- “Is that a brawl downtown?” He said very quickly not even pointing in the direction. 

“A BRAWL?!” Demencia squealed and smashed her head up against the window. “Where, where?! I wanna see it- Flug I want to see it-” 

Flug continued to fly over downtown, making circles so that Demencia could try to catch a glimpse of the said “brawl” he fibbed. It would at least keep them occupied another fifteen minutes...and knowing her, if she couldn’t find a brawl, she would make one. So maybe another hour.

They just had to hope you were using the time wisely.    
Not that you could help how your time was being used.

**Author's Note:**

> I first found this site because I wanted to read a good Villainous fanfiction, I was dedicated to Alan Ituriel‘s works, and was very curious to see others’ takes on his work. In that time, I came across Alien Affections by Haxorus. The incredible detail and wonderful plot inspired me to work to create my own in hopes maybe I could write as well. However, I quickly found that wasn’t exactly the case: writing stories doesn’t just come second hand to me. I found that developing an outline and setting a planned story would turn out much better for me. Unfortunately...I was out of ideas and not sure what I could write despite wanting to. The idea came to mind suddenly from a conversation I had in the comments area of An Unusual Exchange with GoldTrimmedSpectacles: create a story about the reader being able to understand two languages, but only being able to speak one.  
> Both of these authors are not only amazingly talented, but very motivational; sometimes without even meaning to be! I want to thank the two of them so much for driving me forward and pushing me to formulate ideas, so I’m gifting this story to them. Hax and I especially have become friends that push each other to write more and preserve with the writing, and it’s wonderful.  
> I know I was slow in writing this, and even made this a whole new story from the original one I had written, and there were times my motivation was sapped from me, but I have a plan, an outline, and the determination to get this done, so thank you so much for reading, and special thank you especially to Haxorus - best author and friend!


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